No pause on recovery of Marcos loot, closure for Martial Law victims — Palace
MANILA, Philippines — Efforts to bring closure to the victims of Martial Law would continue, Malacañang said Wednesday, after Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos asked critics of her family why they can't move on.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the Duterte administration is "willing to work with all groups for the benefit of the people."
"Efforts to recover any ill-gotten wealth continue through the Presidential Commission on Good Government. Likewise, human rights victims were given compensation through the Human Rights Victims’ Claims Board," Roque said in a statement.
"The government will continue to find ways and means to effect closure for all victims of abuses that occurred during that period of Martial Law," he added.
Roque said President Rodrigo Duterte, a political ally of the Marcoses, has opened the doors of his government to everyone, regardless of affiliation and ideology, "in order to unite the country and bring us greater progress."
Critics have accused Duterte of “rehabilitating” the image of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who declared Martial Law in 1972 supposedly to counter the threats posed by communists. About 70,000 people were imprisoned, 34,000 were tortured, more than 3,000 were killed and 8,000 went missing during the Martial Law period, according to human rights group Amnesty International.
Marcos loyalists, however, insist that the Marcos era was a period of peace and prosperity and even called it the Philippines' "golden age." Academics have disputed the claims of Marcos supporters, dismissing them as “deceptive nostalgia for a past that never really existed.”
In a press conference last Tuesday, Marcos' daughter Imee said people her age should move on from the issue because millennials have already moved on. — Alexis Romero
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