Senator Ferdinand “Bong-Bong” Marcos. AFP FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines— The son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos is not about to tangle with President Benigno Aquino III’s past desire to exact revenge against his father for the assassination of Aquino’s father, Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. in 1983.
Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said on Tuesday he did not want to comment on President Aquino’s statements in Boston Monday that he had thought of avenging the death of his father who was assassinated upon his return to Manila in August 1983 after three years of self-exile in the United States.
The President, who has been in the US for a four-day working visit, earlier said he had wanted to exact revenge on Marcos, his father’s jailer.
Asked for his reaction, Senator Marcos said: “Those are his feelings. It’s not for me to comment.”
Marcos told reporters to ask President Aquino about his statement.
Asked whether he should be concerned because of the President’s statements, he said he did not feel that way.
In his speech in Boston, President Aquino said he calmed down only after a Japanese diplomat told him people would be looking up to him and his mother, the late President Corazon Aquino.
The President conceded that he realized then that “you cannot make decisions just for yourself.”
The death of Ninoy Aquino sparked national outrage that concluded in the military-backed Edsa people power revolution in 1986 that ousted Marcos and swept Mrs. Aquino into power.
While his death was largely blamed on Marcos, this was never proven in court.
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