By Michael Martina and Don Durfee
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Philippines President Ferdinand&nbsp;Marcos&nbsp;Jr dismissed&nbsp;criticism&nbsp;during an interview on Thursday that&nbsp;his&nbsp;presidential&nbsp;campaign&nbsp;played&nbsp;down&nbsp;the&nbsp;corruption&nbsp;and extravagance the&nbsp;Marcos&nbsp;family&nbsp;was known for during&nbsp;his&nbsp;father's rule.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Marcos&nbsp;told Reuters at the end of a four-day visit to Washington that&nbsp;his&nbsp;country's citizens could not continue to fight decades-old social battles.&nbsp;
"My opposition would try to bring up this&nbsp;old issue. But of course, we answer to the voting public and the voting public has given their very clear and loud response to that and that they are not worried," he said.
"These are not the things that Filipinos feel we must be talking about," he added. "We need to be talking about livelihoods, about jobs, about education, about the economy.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "A fractured society that continues to fight battles that are 45 years old is selling itself short because it's the future that we're worried about, not the past."
During&nbsp;his&nbsp;campaign, critics said&nbsp;Marcos' presidential bid tried to whitewash the&nbsp;corruption&nbsp;and authoritarianism associated with&nbsp;his&nbsp;father's 20-year rule.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The elder Ferdinand&nbsp;Marcos&nbsp;ruled for two decades starting in 1965, almost half of it under martial law, helping him extend&nbsp;his&nbsp;power until&nbsp;his&nbsp;overthrow and&nbsp;his&nbsp;family's retreat into exile during a "people-power" revolution.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; During&nbsp;his&nbsp;rule the&nbsp;family&nbsp;name became associated with cronyism and billions of dollars' worth of missing state wealth. The&nbsp;Marcos&nbsp;family&nbsp;denies wrongdoing.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Marcos&nbsp;Sr died in exile in Hawaii in 1989, but&nbsp;his&nbsp;family&nbsp;returned to the Philippines to launch a comeback that culminated in&nbsp;his&nbsp;son's election in May.
Marcos' Washington visit has been the first by a Philippine president in more than 10 years and included a summit on Monday with U.S. President Joe Biden. It was the latest of several high-level meetings&nbsp;Marcos&nbsp;has held with leaders of the United States and China, which are jostling for strategic advantage in the region.
U.S. officials describe the Philippines as strategically vital to efforts to push back against China's expanding influence, and Biden has courted&nbsp;Marcos, who still faces a U.S. court judgment connected with $2 billion of plundered wealth under&nbsp;his&nbsp;father's rule. As head of state&nbsp;Marcos&nbsp;is immune from U.S. prosecution.
The Philippines and the U.S. have drawn closer since&nbsp;Marcos&nbsp;won&nbsp;his&nbsp;election, a change from the administration of&nbsp;Marcos' predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, who turned the Philippines sharply away from its oldest ally and built closer ties with China.
&nbsp;
(Reporting by Michael Martina, Don Durfee and David Brunnstrom. Editing by Gerry Doyle)

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Marcos dismisses criticism that his campaign played down family corruption