Vice Presidential bets Senator Bongbong Marcos, Camarines Sur representative Leni Robredo and Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano. INQUIRER.net and Philippine Daily Inquirer File Photos
MANILA — A group of martial law victims has praised Rep. Leni Robredo and Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano for their stand on the excesses and human rights violations committed by the dictator Ferdinand Marcos during his nearly two-decade rule in the country.
The Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacañang (Carmma) told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Monday that the discussion of the vice presidential candidates in their first and only debate on Sunday of Marcos’ dictatorial rule and supposed legacy was what they had longed for.
“We appreciate that the candidates, especially [Sen.] Alan Cayetano and [Rep.] Leni Robredo, argued pointedly and brought out facts to which [Sen. Ferdinand] Marcos Jr. could only hem and haw and say ‘not true’,” Carmma convenor Bonifacio Ilagan said.
He added that since their group was formed in February, they have been wanting to see Marcos’ opponents for the vice presidency shed light on the supposed legacy of the Marcos dictatorship since this has been used by his namesake son to “conjure up his corrupted vision for the people.”
“While time constraint prevented a deeper discussion of the issues of the martial law [regime’s] human rights violations and the Marcos ill-gotten wealth, Carmma is glad that what we have been saying all along were reiterated during the debate—that the Marcos dictatorship committed gross human rights violations and plundered the economy,” said Ilagan, a multi-awarded writer who was imprisoned and tortured during the Marcos dictatorship.
During the first half of the debate held at the University of Santo Tomas’ Quadricentennial Pavilion, Cayetano slammed Marcos’ lackadaisical stand on corruption and his and his family’s record of plundering the country’s coffers.
Robredo, meanwhile, insisted that the Marcoses should return their stolen wealth which the Presidential Commission on Good Government has estimated worth around $10 billion.
Marcos, however, said that he could not give what he did not have while maintaining that he had obeyed court decisions on his family’s ill-gotten wealth. Robredo argued that this wasn’t the case as the Marcoses didn’t follow the directives issued by the courts in the United States and Singapore.
He hit back by claiming that the government, “headed” by the Liberal Party, was in fact the one blocking the means by which human rights claimants could be recompensed.
For Ilagan, Marcos’ position on the issues hounding his family was “a miserable attempt to come out clean” and “merely exposed the Marcos guilt.”
Ilagan also noted that their group expected the senator to give “motherhood statements” to describe himself as “untainted by corruption.”
“He was the only one who felt the need to say so. And he said it without batting an eyelash. Lying, like blood, truly flows in the veins of Marcos,” he said.
A day after the vice presidential debate, Marcos emerged as the survey leader in the Social Weather Station’s latest preferential survey. Marcos now leads the vice presidential race with 26 percent, taking over former survey frontrunner Sen. Francis Escudero, who is now down with 21 percent.
Robredo was statistically tied in second place with Escudero at 19 percent. They were followed by Cayetano (13 percent), and Senators Gringo Honasan and Antonio Trillanes IV (both at 5 percent).
Ilagan said that despite Marcos’ topping of the survey, they were undaunted in their goal of blocking the senator’s vice presidential bid.
“[It] only serves to make us work harder and hit stronger. We are up against an enemy that maintains a vast war chest of stolen money in the billions of dollars. But Carmma and similar-minded groups and individuals will not be deterred,” Ilagan said.
On April 22, Ilagan’s play, “Hindi na Muli,” will be shown at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños, Laguna, and again at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani in Quezon City on May 6.
“Hindi na Muli” details the human rights violations committed during the martial law regime that are oft-neglected in textbooks, and the ties that bind Marcos to his father’s nearly two-decade dictatorship.
For those who could not catch the play on the aforementioned dates and venues, Ilagan said that their group would release within the month a recording of the play, which would also be available on the video-sharing site YouTube. SFM