No justice for abuses, no unification for Robredo with archrival Marcos
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo said Wednesday that she cannot reconcile with her closest rival for the presidency, former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., if he continues to refuse to acknowledge the abuses committed during his father’s brutal martial rule.
“Mahirap makipagsundo ‘pag una wala ngang pagtanggap, pangalawa, hindi pa nagbabayad noong kailangang pagbayaran,” Robredo said when asked during the “Ikaw Na Ba? The DZRH Presidential Job Interview” if unification with Marcos is possible.
(It’s difficult to unite if firstly, there is no acknowledgement, secondly they have yet to pay for what they’ve done.)
Robredo said that while she is “very forgiving,” she cannot just unite with Marcos for the sake of doing so as she wants to send a message that corruption and abuses should not be tolerated.
She also brought up Marcos’ conviction for his failure to file income tax returns, which is the subject of disqualification petitions against him before the Commission on Elections.
“Sa akin klaro na ang pinakamahalaga dito, iyong taongbayan. Mahirap magsabi na nilalabanan natin ang korupsyon pero hindi naman natin ito pinapakita sa ating ginagawa,” Robredo said.
(To me it’s clear that the most important thing here is the people. It’s difficult to say that we are fighting corruption but we are not showing this in our actions.)
The 2022 presidential race is shaping up to be another showdown between Robredo and Marcos, who in 2016 faced off in the tight vice presidential derby where the incumbent vice president won with a slim margin of just over 260,000 votes.
This is the third time that they would go against each other in a political contest, with the first one being the 2016 vice-presidential race and the second being the succeeding poll protest lobbed by Marcos at Robredo. Robredo won against Marcos in both instances.
In a survey conducted from December 6 to 11 by private pollster Pulse Asia, Marcos maintained a clear lead with 53% of respondents saying they would vote for him if elections were held then.
Robredo comes in at a far second with 20% of respondents saying they would vote for her, but her numbers have significantly improved from the previous survey where she only had 8% of respondents.
The two-decade rule of Marcos' father, Ferdinand Sr., saw thousands imprisoned, tortured, killed and disappeared — a fact that was recognized by a Hawaiit court and affirmed by the United States 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 1995 and the Supreme Court in 2003.
Republic Act No. 10368 or the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act also recognizes that there “were victims of summary execution, torture, enforced or involuntary disappearance and other gross human rights violations” under the Marcos regime.
The same law established the Human Rights Victims Claims Board, which has listed 11,103 people who were victims of human rights violations under Marcos’ rule who would receive around P180,000 to P1.7 million in compensation.
Despite the well-established facts on the abuses and corruption of the Marcos regime, his family continues to refuse to acknowledge these while their supporters spread false claims regarding the rule of the Marcos patriarch.
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