THE eldest daughter of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos on Tuesday blamed former President Fidel V. Ramos, who was chief of the Philippine Constabulary during her father’s Martial Law regime, for the human rights violations and forced disappearances during Marcos’ rule.
“To the people against the burial of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani [Heroes’ Cemetery] on grounds of alleged human rights violations during the Martial Law years… ask Ramos,” Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos said in a statement.
“He was responsible for directing multiple abuses committed by the PC in the provinces, particularly in Samar and Leyte.”
Marcos also blamed his father’s Defense minister, Juan Ponce Enrile, for the atrocities during the Martial Law regime.
She pointed out to Enrile’s autobiography, Juan Ponce Enrile: A Memoir, where he wrote: “I was the administrator of Martial Law. The powers of Martial Law were delegated to me. Any abuse of Martial Law was my responsibility.”
In a television interview last Friday, Ramos said the Marcos family owed the public an apology over the abuses committed during the Martial Law years.
He said the family should also return to the public coffers their ill-gotten wealth citing the recovered Swiss deposits of the family during his administration.
During the latter years of the Marcos regime, Ramos and Enrile defected after they withdrew their support for the Marcos family and triggered the People Power Revolution. That led to the family’s exile to Hawaii with the assistance of the United States government.
Governor Marcos denied that her family was guilty of the various charges raised by its critics.
Ramos was elected President from 1992 to 1998, and it was he who sealed the 1992 deal with the Marcos family to fly the late strongman’s remains from Hawaii to Paoay in Ilocos Norte and have him buried there.
But Ramos said his administration’s agreement with the Marcos family over the burial of the late dictator was only good until the end of his term in 1998.
Ramos’ comments came a week after the Supreme Court dismissed the petitions seeking to stop the burial of Marcos’ remains at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.