Atienza urges Bongbong to acknowledge Martial Law atrocities

Former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. should recognize the atrocities committed during the dictatorship of his late father, Ferdinand Marcos, and vow that these will not happen again if the scion wins the presidency in 2022, Deputy Speaker Lito Atienza said Tuesday.

“I am not asking Bongbong Marcos to apologize for his [father's] sins. I am just asking him to recognize that Martial Law and his father did not do well. We want him to say, "If I become president, I will never do the same,” Atienza, Senator Manny Pacquiao's running mate in Eleksyon 2022, said in a CNN Philippines interview.

“Uncontrolled corruption happened then. Kapag sinabing Marcos, I am on the side of truth. Hindi nakabuti 'yan. [When you speak of the Marcos regime, that was not to the benefit of the nation]. I suffered. I cannot and will never forget that. And I want my children and grandchildren to know that,” Atienza, who was one of the Liberal Party leaders who survived the Plaza Miranda bombing in 1971 during the Marcos dictatorship, added.

Likewise, Atienza said that candidates for the 2022 polls should be clear if “they approve that Martial Law did good for the country or believe that martial law jeopardized and destroyed the economy of the country because of massive corruption.”

“You either like Marcos, or you don’t like Marcos,” Atienza said.

In August 2016, Atienza expressed support for the burial of the late strongman at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Cemetery for Heroes), saying it was the communists, not Marcos, who were behind the 1971 Plaza Miranda bombing.

Atienza, a member of the House of Representatives as Buhay party-list representative, appealed to the Filipinos’ sense of “maturity, fairness and justice” in supporting the hero's burial for the late dictator.

Marcos, for his part, has repeatedly said that he cannot apologize for things he did not do.

Global rights watchdog Amnesty International has documented an estimate of 70,000 incarcerated individuals, 34,000 torture victims and 3,240 murdered Filipinos by state forces.

A Marcos compensation law, enacted in 2013, provides for financial remuneration to those who survived torture and human rights violations during the late dictator's regime.

The compensation provided by this law is sourced from the P10 billion of the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcos family which was already retrieved by the Philippine government from a Swiss bank.

Prior to this, the US Federal Court in Hawaii, in 1995, already ruled to grant 10,000 victims of human rights violations during the Marcos regime, as well as their families, $1.96 billion worth of compensation. 

'Marriage is for reproduction'

In the same interview, Atienza reiterated his opposition to same-sex marriage. He said marriage must be a union between a man and a woman since one of its objectives is procreation.

"I am for defending the rights of everyone, LGBTQ and all of that. I respect the right of everyone to enjoy himself in life but I will never, never support same-sex marriage," Atienza said.

"You know why? Because same-sex marriage is against natural law. Marriage is for reproduction," he added.

In addition, Atienza said he does not believe that divorce should be legalized in the country.

Atienza said the problems of married couples should be addressed through other means.

"Let us attend to the problems of those who cannot succeed in marriage, but let us not make a law that will allow divorce in the Philippines," he said.

The Philippines, where at least 80 percent of the population is Catholic, is the only country in the world where divorce is illegal aside from Vatican City, which is the seat of the Catholic faith.

Philippine laws allow annulment and declaration of nullity of marriage following court proceedings.

Divorce advocates, however, view the grounds for annulment as too stringent. — BM/VBL, GMA News