Marcos Jr. trying to launder family name for presidential bid, say lawmakers

Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Militant lawmakers are warning against an attempt by the heirs of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos to clean the family name and boost the political stock of his senator-son who is plotting a return to Malacañang.

Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello and Bayan  Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate cited a misleading report in a  broadsheet owned by the family of Marcos’ wife, Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Romualdez-Marcos, which claimed that the Supreme Court had “junked the ill-gotten cases against the heirs and in-laws of the late President Ferdinand Marcos due to a lack of evidence.”

“Well, given the source of the story, it is certainly possible that it is part of a broader strategy of laundering the Marcos name for a presidential run,” said Bello in a text message.

Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., eligible to run for a second term in 2016, is considered by some sectors as a potent candidate for higher office either in the next national elections or in 2022 when he will turn 65 years old.

“This is clearly part and parcel of the attempts by revisionists to whitewash, sanitize our bloodied history under Marcos’ despotic rule. This is an attempt to even absolve further the Marcoses of its countless sins, bloodied debts against the Filipino people,” said Zarate in a text message.

In a phone interview, Presidential Commission on Good Government Chair Andres Bautista said that the news report “twisted” the facts about the Supreme Court decision.

“While it is true that the Sandiganbayan has declared that the heirs should not be indicted as co-conspirators in Marcos’ looting of the country’s resources, the Supreme Court has ruled that they should be reinstated as part of the ill-gotten wealth cases because they may be in possession of ill- gotten wealth, which we are trying to recover,” said Bautista. “And we can clearly see that they are reveling from the fortune amassed from their father’s misdeeds.”

Bello said that the high court should share some of the blame for making their decision susceptible to manipulation. “One should say that the SC decision was clumsily penned and laid it open to misinterpretation on such a sensitive issue. In the future, the justices should subject their decisions to a competent copy editor,” said Bello.