Bongbong delusional, says Marcos victim

SEN. FERDINAND “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.  is delusional, entertaining fantasies that he would follow in the footsteps of his father through a narrow path that would lead to Malacañang.

“He deludes himself by thinking that he will be vice president and ultimately return to Malacañang with the Marcos cabal,” said multiawarded writer and human rights activist Bonifacio Ilagan, convener of the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses (Carmma), in a statement on Friday.

Carmma slammed Marcos’ assertion that attacks coming from his political detractors are helping advance his vice presidential candidacy.

Ilagan said that since Carmma was launched in February, its campaign to block Marcos’ bid for the country’s second highest post has continuously gained ground, especially among millennials, who have come to “realize the hypocrisy and emptiness of his calls for unity and progress.”

“To this day, he could only evade issues of truth and justice hurled to his very face,” said Ilagan, who was tortured and imprisoned during the dictatorship of Marcos’ father and namesake.

Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reforms, earlier described as “wrong logic” Marcos’ thinking that groups against his candidacy are boosting his campaign.

“If you go against a certain candidate, the dynamics is that [the candidate] will be dragged down,” Casiple said, noting that groups such as Carmma have, in fact, attained their goal.

Casiple said that recent survey results showed that support for Marcos has been “stuck at 25 percent for so long,” pointing out that if the pro-Marcos movement is indeed strong “his ratings should’ve already spiked.”

On Thursday, Marcos thanked his detractors for the “nonstop attention” they are giving his candidacy. He also described himself as “a kind and quiet person” who should not be feared.

Ilagan said Carmma is afraid that the Filipino people would be “hoodwinked by the ‘kind and quiet person’ who could be so remorseless and without a conscience as to use stolen wealth to campaign on the basis of outright lies and a rejection of history.”