Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/RICHARD REYES
MANILA, Philippines— Believe it or not but material things ‘don’t matter” for the family of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Take it from his son and namesake, Senator Ferdinand “Bong-Bong” Marcos Jr., who simply shrugged off the reported damaged and ruined collection of shoes and clothes of former First Lady and now Ilocos Norte Representative Imelda Marcos at the National Museum.
“These are material things. We can make more gowns and we can recreate all of that,” the senator said in a press conference in the Senate on Wednesday.
“If there’s one thing (1986) taught this family is that material things don’t matter that much,” he said, referring to the 1986 people revolution that toppled his father’s presidency.
The senator was no longer surprised by the reported damage on the family’s confiscated properties, saying it has been the government’s policy to confiscate their properties even if they would not put it to good use.
“This is the same situation with all the other confiscated properties. They confiscated them and (left them fall to ruin. Hindi naman nagamit. Sasabihin it belongs to the government, then use it, wala naman nangyari,” he said.
“So it’s just the continuation of that confiscatory policy that followed 1986 na kunin lang kunin kahit hindi naman gagamitin, na wala namang dahilan. That’s till part of that whole policy that was implemented after 1986,” he added.
More than the ruined shoes and clothes, the young Marcos said it was more “worrisome” that there were people who were trying to “rewrite non-factual events.”
“I’m just astounded by them dismissing outright years of our national history as insignificant,” he said.
“To discount everything that happened, I mean come on, everything that happened in the 20 years of my father’s presidency and to say it’s not historically significant…well, that’ s already rewriting history,” said the senator.
“But that’s something we’ve been seeing over the years many many times. Unfortunately, we have become too accustomed to that continuous attempt at rewriting history,” Marcos added.