Pangilinan balks at Senate panel nod on Marcos holiday

Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan on Monday disagreed with some lawmakers in the upper chamber who backed the passage of the bill seeking to declare a local holiday in Ilocos Norte every September 11 to commemorate the birth anniversary of former President Ferdinand Marcos.

"Congress, in enacting the Human Rights Compensation Measure in 2013, recognized the widespread abuses and atrocities committed by the Marcos regime and apportioned 10 billion pesos as compensation to thousands of its victims taken from proceeds of recovered ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses," Pangilinan said in a statement.

"The amount of 10 billion pesos was declared as ill-gotten by no less than our Supreme Court. It would be inappropriate to honor a tyrant and a thief," he added.

The opposition senator also asked why the measure is being pushed when the Philippines is in the middle of a COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier in the day, the Senate committee on local government approved on first reading House Bill No. 7137 which declares September 11 of every year as "President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos Day" in Ilocos Norte—the bailiwick of the Marcoses.

Marcos was born on September 11, 1917 in Sarrat, Ilocos Norte. He became the representative of Ilocos Norte's second district at the House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959.

He was also elected as a Senator of the Philippines before becoming the 10th president of the country in 1965. He held onto that power for two decades and was unseated through the EDSA People Power Revolution in 1986.—LDF, GMA News