Aquino wanted revenge against Marcos

MANILA, Philippnes - President Benigno Aquino III marked the 42nd anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law in Boston with an admission that he wanted to exact revenge on former dictator Ferdinand Marcos following the assassination of his martyred father.

In his speech before the Filipino community there, Aquino reminisced about his family's exile years in Boston, where they found a "haven from the persecution of the dictatorship."

"It was here where we were given a sense of normalcy in what can only be described as very abnormal times back home," Aquino said.

But when his father was killed upon his return to the Philippines, Aquino said his family experienced the lowest point of their lives.

The President admitted that he then wanted to get back at Marcos.

"As the only son, I felt an overwhelming urge to exact an eye for an eye. Mr. Marcos and his ilk were like rabid dogs who had lost all reason. There was no longer any potential for dialogue; the only solution when confronted by a rabid dog is to put it down," Aquino said.

"I knew that he was a formidable foe, and the fight would be impossible, but regardless of this, in those moments, all I wanted to do to Mr. Marcos and his camp, was to do unto him as he had done unto us," he added.

Aquino said it was a "fortune's way of showing its sense of irony" that he met with the Filipino community in Boston exactly 42 years after Marcos declared Martial law.

He recalled the country's conditions under the Marcos dictatorship, which he said controlled every aspect of life.

"Unless you belonged to the favored few, you had very limited rights... There was no such thing as free speech or freedom of assembly," Aquino said.

"Accountable to no one but themselves, the dictator, his wife, and their cronies turned the public treasury into their private purse. Checks and balances in government were replaced by the dictator being the sole judge, jury and executioner, giving his regime total impunity to abduct, torture, jail, and kill its critics," the President added. -Louis Bacani