Enrile denies thousands killed, detained during Marcos martial rule
In what could be a move to revise what happened during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, his namesake son, former Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. came out with a full production one-on-one interview with 94-year old former Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, "a witness to history."
Enrile, in the first episode, which was uploaded in social media on September 20, the eve of the declaration of martial law by the elder Marcos 46 years ago, denied "a lot of people" were killed and detained due to their political belief.
"They claimed that we killed a lot of people. That’s why when I was interviewed by someone some time ago, I challenged her: Name me one that we executed other than Lim Seng," said Enrile, who was then Marcos' defense minister.
"That we had 70,000 arrested, which was not true! Maybe if they will include the people who violate curfew and jaywalkers, maybe you can reach that number. People could go out at night. They can go out to fish, they could go out to farm, they were free in fact. Of course, if you are a member of the rebel group or a war lord or someone who violated the criminal law, you had to be arrested, whether you have Martial Law or not," he said.
"Name me one person that was arrested because of political or religious belief during that period. None. Name me one person who was arrested simply because he criticized Marcos. None," he stressed.
Victims of human rights violations and their family members slammed Enrile and Bongbong for what they called as distortion of truth.
Former Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr., in a press briefing in Malacanang, said Enrile could have forgotten what had happened during the 20-year rule of Marcos.
"That's part of aging," said Pimentel who was detained four times and placed under house arrest for two years for being critical in the Marcos administration.
Former President Benigno Aquino III, son of slain Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. and staunch critic of Marcos, said the truth could not be bent just because of old age.
"Senator Enrile is old, but it's not an excuse for him to distort the truth," he told reporters.
He also cited the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013 that allowed some 11,000 martial law victims and their relatives received compensation from the government. Celerina Monte/DMS
