Marcos thanks Filipinos in Hawaii for helping family during exile
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. returned to Hawaii, where the Marcos family and their associates were flown during the 1986 People Power Revolution, to thank people who helped them bear their six year exile.
It was the first time he returned to Hawaii after the Marcos family was allowed to return to the Philippines in 1992 to face charges against them.
The family, led by then President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., were brought to Makiki Heights. The elder Marcos passed away there in 1989.
Speaking in Honolulu where he arrived from Los Angeles on Saturday evening (Sunday afternoon in Manila), Marcos told the Filipino community: ''We landed here ...with nothing''.
Marcos said people brought clothes, food and appliances.
Marcos said when his mother, former First Lady Imelda Marcos, found out her son was going to Hawaii, the President recounted: ''Make sure you go to the people who went out of their way to make us comfortable.''
''We could not have survived a very difficult period without you,'' said Marcos which was greeted by applause.
Interviewed by reporters in San Francisco, Marcos added that he had forgiven people who caused the downfall of the Marcos family in 1986.
''I don’t need to forgive them. I never blamed them,'' Marcos said.
''I hope by now you have realized I don't take things personally. They don’t need my forgiveness. If they want it, I will give it to them,'' he added.
Marcos on Sunday is scheduled to visit the US Indopacom Headquarters, have a capability orientation for the JBPHH/ West Philippines Sea Support, attend a barge tour and wreath-laying ceremony, and a roundtable meeting at the Daniel Inouye Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies.
He and the delegation will then fly to Manila. DMS
