MANILA: President Benigno Aquino III marked the 42nd anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law in Boston with an admission that he wanted to exact revenge on former dictator Ferdinand Marcos following the assassination of his father.
In his speech before the Filipino community there, Aquino reminisced about his family’s exile years in Boston, where they found a “haven from the persecution of the dictatorship. It was here where we were given a sense of normalcy in what can only be described as very abnormal times back home,” Aquino said.
But when his father was killed upon his return to the Philippines, Aquino said his family experienced the lowest point of their lives. He admitted that he then wanted to get back at Marcos.
“As the only son, I felt an overwhelming urge to exact an eye for an eye. Mr Marcos and his ilk were like rabid dogs who had lost all reason. There was no longer any potential for dialogue; the only solution when confronted by a rabid dog is to put it down,” Aquino said. “I knew that he was a formidable foe, and the fight would be impossible, but regardless of this, in those moments, all I wanted to do to Mr Marcos and his camp, was to do unto him as he had done unto us,” he added.
He said it was a “fortune’s way of showing its sense of irony” that he met with the Filipino community in Boston exactly 42 years after Marcos declared Martial law. The Philippine star
