‘I have no impulses to authoritarianism’: Marcos Jr.

MANILA — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday said that he has “no impulses” to impose an authoritarian rule in the Philippines as the country currently has a “good system.”

“I have no impulses to authoritarianism whatsoever,” Marcos Jr. told Australian broadcaster ABC when asked how he “resists the impulse to authoritarianism.”

“We have a good system going. I have not felt any tug or temptation to make it a more authoritarian system,” he said.

When prodded about the cost of his father’s dictatorial regime, the Philippine President argued that the former president's brand of authoritarian rule was “with the participation of all stakeholders that were involved.”

“It was just a peace and order situation that really dictated the necessity for the declaration of martial law,” he said.

“It was war and with war the death and destruction is inevitable but this is a war not declared by the government of the Philippines. These wars were declared on the government of the Philippines,” he said.

The late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. declared martial law in September 1972 to allegedly address the threats from the Communist Party of the Philippines.

This period was marred with corruption allegations, illegal detention and torture of those who spoke against his administration, including opposition politicians and student activists.

About 75,000 people filed claims before the Human Rights Victims Claims Board for the human rights abuses — ranging from rape, torture and arbitrary detention — they suffered during Marcos Sr.’s martial law, data from Malacañang showed.

However, only 11,000 of these victims were deemed eligible for claims, according to the Human Rights Victims’ Claims Board (HRVCB).

“Cases were filed against me, my family, the estate etc and up to now we have, the assertions that were made, we have been shown to be untrue,” Marcos Jr. claimed.

“This family has signed a quitclaims, we have signed many quitclaims. Any money that you find is yours and finished and everything was taken from us,” he said.

“We were taken to Hawaii... Everything was taken from us with nothing, we have nothing left,” he said.

In 2021, a year before Marcos Jr. rose to power, the Philippines government said it recovered P174.2 billion from the Marcos family’s ill-gotten wealth, but noted that it still needs to go after some P125.9 billion from the late dictator’s family.

Despite this, Marcos Jr. cinched the Philippines’ top elected post in 2022 via a landslide victory with some 31.6 million votes.

“There was a time when the issue was Marcos,” President Marcos said, then noted, “That's not the case anymore and that's why I think the best proof of that is my election.”