Enrile now says he never said nobody was arrested during Martial Law

MANILA, Philippines — Former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile on Wednesday said it is up to the Filipino people to decide whether they will vote for him as senator next year, even after he received public backlash last month for debunked claims about martial law.

Enrile, 94, has emerged from retirement to gun for a Senate post in the 2019 midterm elections.

The former senator is out on bail on a plunder case against him related to the Priority Development Assistance Fund scam. The court had allowed bail because of his health.

In a recorded one-on-one interview with former Sen. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. in September, Enrile stirred up a hornet’s nest after he claimed that no one was arrested for their political beliefs during dictator Ferdinand Marcos' martial law.

READ: Fact-checking Enrile's tete-a-tete with Bongbong Marcos

In a media interview after he refiled a corrected version of his certificate of candidacy, Enrile, who staged his own assassination attempt to justify the declaration of martial law, said his words were “twisted.”

The video was posted on former Sen. Marcos' social media accounts, and this is what Enrile, who was Defense minister to the elder Marcos, said then:

"Name me one person that was arrested because of political or religious belief during that period. None. Name me one person that was arrested simply because he criticized President Marcos. None."

"Maliwanag naman siguro na marami ang hinuli...(I think it is clear that many were arrested)," former Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr., who was arrested in 1973 and detained at Camp Crame for three months, said in September in response to the claim.

Pimentel, an opposition figure during the Marcos years, was arrested again in 1978, 1983 and 1985.

'I have my own story as others have their own story'

Enrile was asked by a reporter if he thinks the controversy generated by his recorded dialogue with the late strongman’s only son and namesake could hurt his chances of winning a seat in the Upper House.

“It is up for the public to judge that. I have my own story as others have their own story, and if they think that my story is wrong, show me [and] prove it that it’s wrong,” Enrile said.

“What did I say in my interviews? All I said is that we did not adopt a policy of killing people with impunity, that’s why many people who are talking today criticizing our society are still alive. They were alive in my time,” he added.

RELATED: The young victims of Martial Law

“There are people that twisted my statement — ‘according to Enrile no one was arrested during martial law.’ I never said that,” he said.

In the same recorded interview, he said: "Of course, if you are a member of the rebel group, or a warlord, or someone who violated criminal law, you had to be arrested whether you have Martial Law or not."

The Marcos patriarch, whose presidency was tainted by human rights abuses and massive corruption, was ousted in the 1986 "People Power" revolution.

In February 1986, Enrile and Gen. Fidel Ramos, then Armed Forces of the Philippines vice chief, withdrew their support from Marcos and recognized Corazon Aquino as the duly-elected president.

Enrile would later on be involved in a military coup against Aquino.

Despite the death of the strongman while in exile in Hawaii in 1989, his family has been making a steady political comeback. — Ian Nicolas Cigaral