Cayetano: Give Marcos a chance, judge him as president later
MANILA, Philippines — Senator-elect Alan Peter Cayetano, congressman for Taguig-Pateros, on Wednesday said Filipinos should give likely president-elect Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. a chance but also said the elections will not erase issues that the Marcos family faces.
Cayetano and Marcos were rivals in the 2016 vice-presidential race, with the former bringing up issues of ill-gotten wealth.
"He was elected. He is set to be proclaimed. Give him a chance. Let's see what he does. Let's judge him later on," Cayetano said in an interview with reporters after he was proclaimed by the poll body as one of 12 winning bets in the 2022 Senate race.
"It's easy to judge him and his family before this. That much was clear. But now, Filipinos have said, 'We want him as our president'. So let's judge him based on his actions when he is there [in Malacañang]," he added in Filipino.
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Marcos Jr. is now leading in the presidential derby by a wide margin of 31.10 million votes compared to his archrival Vice President Leni Robredo who has only 14.82 million, according to the unofficial tally.
On Wednesday, Cayetano clarified that he is not retracting his earlier remarks that the Marcos family should return their ill-gotten wealth.
"When you have certain principles, they don't change. Did I retract them? There are issues regarding the Marcos family that will remain, and it is up to them to answer that. It's up to the media to hound them on that. It's up to the people to go to them and hold them accountable," he said in a mix of English and Tagalog.
Cayetano, whose wife is mayor-elect of Taguig City, will be joining his sister Pia in the Senate in the 19th Congress.
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