“I cannot give what I don’t have.”
Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. maintained this after Liberal Party (LP) vice presidential candidate Leni Robredo urged him to return the wealth the Marcos family allegedly obtained illegally during the regime of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
During the first “PiliPinas” vice presidential debate at the University of Santo Tomas on Sunday, Robredo asked Marcos to at least recognize the faults of the martial law regime his father led for two decades.
READ: Marcos not apologizing for martial-law abuses means non-acceptance–Robredo
“Ang apology hindi pwedeng ipilit sa kanya. Pero ‘yung recognition na maraming kamalian, kasama doon ‘yung hidden wealth na ‘di pa natin nakukuha, ‘yung galing sa mga tao, kailangan ‘yon ibalik sa atin,” Robredo said.
(We cannot force him to apologize. But he should at least recognize that there were mistakes committed including the hidden wealth that we have yet to get back. This belongs to the people, and we need to get it back.)
READ: Robredo: Bongbong Marcos’s lack of remorse is worrisome
But Marcos maintained: “I cannot give what I don’t have.”
The senator, in turn, passed the blame to the government—pointing out that it is being led by the ruling LP—for the delayed release of the compensation of human rights victims during martial law.
“Abogado si Leni. Siguro alam niya na hindi ang pamilya ko ang humahadlang sa kasong iyan… Wala na po sa pamilya Marcos; hindi na kami ang naghaharang sa compensation kung hindi ang government, ang Liberal Party,” he said.
(Leni is a lawyer. She must know that my family is not blocking that case. It is no longer in the hands of the Marcos family; we are not blocking the release of compensation, but the government, particularly the Liberal Party.) IDL
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