Palace to Bongbong: Election not vindication

MANILA, Philippines - Elections can never be interpreted as vindication, as far as Malacañang is concerned.

Press Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. reminded opposition Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. yesterday that Marcos family members’ election to public office does not necessarily mean that they have been absolved of the abuses committed by his late father former President Ferdinand Marcos.

“As reported by the Human Rights Claims Board, more than 75,000 claims have been received; evidently, the claimants are not accepting the view that election means vindication,” Coloma told reporters.

Upon his assumption to the presidency in mid-2010, President Aquino formed the board where victims of human rights during the 20-year dictatorship of Marcos could file their grievances and seek reparation for the excesses of the authoritarian regime.

“President Aquino has said time and again that there can be no reconciliation without justice,” Coloma said.

“While it may be easy to say just move on, we believe that in so doing, we will not be doing justice to the thousands of families whose members suffered violence during the dictatorship,” Coloma explained.

Nevertheless, no less than Aquino himself wanted the human rights issue to end following the creation of the board. “The government has in effect offered an apology by creating the Human Rights Victims Claims Board to redress their grievances.  

“Moreover, the President also believes that it is important to educate the Filipino youth who were born after the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution on the importance of the values of freedom and democracy,” Coloma stressed.

Marcos burial

Liberal Party presidential candidate Manuel Roxas II is against the proposal to bury the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig.

Roxas said the country has yet to achieve closure on martial law, considered a dark chapter in Philippine history by critics of the Marcoses.

“We do not have closure yet. Are we happy with what happened during martial law? Was he (Marcos) a hero?” Roxas told radio station dzMM last Wednesday.

“If he is a hero and if the nation decides that he is a hero, then he should be in the Libingan ng mga Bayani,” he added.

When reminded that presidents are interred in the heroes’ cemetery, Roxas said: “It doesn’t mean that if you are a president, you are already a hero.

“You do not need to become a president to be a hero. If you are a president, it does not necessarily mean that you are a hero,” he added. With Alexis Romero