Bongbong Marcos wants to “fix” history due to “revisionism”

October 5, 2017

Now, it's former Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr's turn to accuse his family's critics of being engaged in "revisionism."

In a forum in Quezon City on Thursday, Marcos said his family wants to "fix" the history due the the "revisionism" that started as early as 1983.

The namesake of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos insisted his family will "provide the truth" and not a "version" of what happened during the about two-decade rule of his father.

"There are lots of revisionism happening since 1986, it even started in '83. They are revising history already. Of course, we want to fix that...it's not a version. It's the truth. We will not provide a version, we'll provide the truth and that's what (is) important," he said.

He even accused those saying bad things about the Marcoses of "spinning," and engaged in issuing "fake news.

"Just see who is lying, who's telling the truth. I believe that if we have committed wrong, we've said something wrong, we have corrected them already. What we want is for the truth to come out," Marcos stressed as he even accused those involved in changing the history of being engaged into politicking.

Asked of the truth that his family wants to tell the people, he said, "what really happened during the administration of my father, what were his projects. Those what he did, how he helped the country, the wrong he committed and the right things he did."

Further pressed if it would include the alleged human rights violations committed during his father's regime, Marcos took a few seconds before answering, "Isn't that been decided in the court?"

He said it is now between the people and the Philippine government.

During the administration of President Benigno Aquino III, Congress passed a law creating the Human Rights Victims' Claims Board.

According to the HRVCB, it received a total of 75,730 applications from alleged victims of martial law abuses during the Marcos regime. The agency has already distributed certain amount of money to some of the 4,000 listed eligible claimants.

The old Marcos ruled the Philippines from 1965 until he was ousted through a people power revolt in 1986. The clamor for Marcos' ouster intensified when his staunch critic, late Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., was assassinated at the tarmac of the then Manila International Airport in August 1983 after years of exile in the United States.

Aquino's widow, Corazon Aquino, was catapulted to power when Marcos called for a snap election in 1986.

Since Marcos' ouster, the Philippine government has pursued several forfeiture cases on the alleged ill-gotten wealth of the late dictator, his family and cronies.

The Presidential Commission on Good Government, an agency created shortly after Corazon Aquino assumed the presidency, reported that from 1986 to 2015, it recovered over P170 billion worth of ill-gotten wealth from the Marcoses and their allies.

Last August, Duterte disclosed that the Marcoses have offered to return to the government some of their wealth and a "few gold bars" that they kept as they hoped that during that time when they were removed from power, they could still return to Malacanang.

But in the same forum, Marcos said there was no major development regarding the "sporadic" talks between their lawyers and that of the government.

Asked if his family was asking from immunity from suit, he said, "not, it's a settlement" as he reiterated that he did not commit any crime.

"What we're saying is, we're settling the case...let's have an adjudication," he said as he even likened the talks to two parties fighting over a piece of land and they agreed to settle. "You don't file against me, I don't file against you. The case is settled."

He insisted that since 1986, it has been his family's stance that they were ready to sign a quit claim to whatever property that the government would find, except those that his family has been in possession even before his father became a president.

"If the government is saying that we're still hiding something, we will help you find it and you can have it," he said.

Asked about the few gold bars that Duterte mentioned that his family has been offering to return to government also, Marcos said, "I don't know about it...you have to ask the President. Don't ask me."

Marcos indicated that former President Benigno Aquino III and his allies were behind in spreading "fake news" against his family as he cited what happened at the University of the Philippines-Los Banos (UPLB) campus last month where thousands of people trooped in the place supposedly to claim portion of the Marcos' wealth.

He said what happened to UPLB, where about 12,000 people gathered, was done by "well-organized, well-funded" group, which has the "political wherewithal."

Asked if they were the Aquinos, Marcos said, "I'm sure they have something to do with that."

The former senator, who ran in the 2016 vice presidential race, is currently protesting the results of the last elections.

He expressed hope that within the month, the Supreme Court, which is acting as the Presidential Election Tribunal, could retrieve the ballot boxes from the three pilot provinces - Iloilo, Negros Oriental, and Camarines Sur - and make a recount of the votes for vice presidential candidates.

He believes when the votes are counted in those provinces, he would be proclaimed as the rightful vice president and not Leni Robredo "between one month to two months." Celerina Monte/DMS