Etta Rosales to Marcos: We’ll never forget martial law era

Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

Former Commission on Human Rights chair Etta Rosales on Friday reminded vice presidential contender, Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., that Filipinos will never forget the dark era of martial law.

Rosales was reacting to Marcos’ statement that Filipinos have already forgotten what happened in the past and would rather deal with current problems such as the education system, infrastructure and poverty.

“It seems that Senator Marcos has forgotten that the problems we face today are rooted in the Marcos administration,” Rosales said.

“Senator Marcos should be told that no less than 10 laws dealing with human rights were passed because of human rights violations during his father’s term. If we forget these human rights violations, then we make a mockery of the law,” she added.

Rosales said the young Marcos’ pronouncement that there was nothing wrong with martial law and his repeated claims of the many accomplishments of the martial law regime reflected the senator’s distorted mind set.

“True, the fault of the father is not the fault of the son, that’s not automatic. We can grant that it was not his fault but what is sad and wrong about it is that he keeps on talking about the good things that supposedly happened during martial law. His own mind set is wrong. If he says, ‘why should I apologize for martial law,’ it only means he approved of his father’s rule. He even boasts that his father did no wrong, and this I think is the wrong mind set of Senator Marcos,” Rosales said.

Rosales said she believes one of the reasons Senator Marcos wants to run for vice president is to vindicate and glorify what his father did during his term.

“My question to him is, what is your platform? To help the people or to vindicate your father’s name?” Rosales said.