President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. said it is wrong to call his later father and namesake as a "dictator," defending the latter's decision to impose martial law in 1972 as to prevent the rising disorder and rebellion cause by communists at that time.
Marcos made the statement in a TV interview with Toni Gonzaga at the Malacañang aired on Tuesday, Sept. 13, his 65th birthday.
It was the first time since he assumed presidency on June that the President himself addressed some of the controversial issues that hounded him and his family for years.
"The ‘son of the late dictator.’ When you hear that, how does that make you feel? Does it affect you?" Gonzaga asked.
"No, because I know they’re wrong. How many times have I been here in this room where he was in consultation with different groups? A dictator does not consult. A dictator just says, ‘This is what you should do, whether you like it or not," Marcos Jr. answered.
"Because I know that everything he did, he did with consultation with whoever. No matter what the system of the government was. That’s why for me, you can say what you want, that’s your opinion. You’re wrong," he added.
The Chief Executive also defended his father's imposition of Martial Law in 1972, saying it was crucial to fight growing Muslim and communist insurgencies.
"It was necessary to — in my father’s view at the time — to declare martial law because a war was really raging already at the time," he continued.
"Martial law was declared because of the wars, the two wars we were fighting on two fronts. The CPP-NPA was fomenting revolution. They wanted to bring down the government through violent means. The government had to defend itself," he said.
In the same televised interview, the younger Marcos denied accusations that his family was distorting history, saying “the victors write history.”
“Because the victors write history, don’t they? It is the victors in a conflict that will write the history. The government fell. So the victors wrote this history. And that’s what you were – that’s what is being taught in school and that’s what you heard and learned.”
The EDSA People Power Revolution in 1986 led to the end of the elder Marcos’ regime. He died while in exile in Hawaii in September 1989 at the age of 72.
The Marcos matriarch and her children were allowed to return to the Philippines in 1991. They have since made a comeback in the political scene, capping of with the landslide win of Marcos Jr. in the recent presidential polls.
