Senatorial aspirant Harry Roque reiterated his belief that presidential aspirant Bongbong Marcos is not an evil person, but it would be better if he would apologize for martial law atrocities.
Roque is a guest senatorial candidate under the Bongbong-Sara Duterte tandem for the 2022 polls.
“You cannot attribute the sins of the father to the son. I see no reason for him to apologize given he was 15 when martial law was declared. I don’t want anyone to ask me to apologize for things that my parents did when I was 15,” Roque said.
“It is up to him if he wants to apologize, it would be better, but it’s not something I would insist upon because that’s not in the nature of an apology,” he added in an interview on ABS-CBN News.
Roque used to push for the indemnification of martial law victims, but the former presidential spokesperson reiterated that the late dictator’s son is not included in cases related to ill-gotten wealth.
“He’s very unassuming, very humble, and I guess from a personal level, I don’t think he is the evil person that I portrayed the dictatorship to be,” he said.
“You do have to give credit to the individual personalities of the public figures,” he added.
Roque’s statement is contrary to what he said in 2018 where he said that Bongbong cannot distort history.
“As far as the Palace is concerned, there are decisions affirming that there were grave human rights violations committed during the Marcos regime. There’s even a law in Congress which provides compensation for victims of martial law,” Roque said in the past.
