Distances of the palace from the proposed ‘Día de Marcos’

MANILA – Malacañang distanced itself on Thursday from a bill that seeks to declare September 11 of each year as a special non-working holiday in the province of Ilocos Norte in commemoration of the anniversary of the birth of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

President Rodrigo Duterte will respect the decision of lawmakers on the proposal, said his spokesman Harry Roque.

“The president will respect the decision of the legislators in Congress,” Roque said at a press conference at the Palace, noting that the measure has yet to obstruct both houses of Congress.

(The president will respect whatever the decision of the legislators in Congress is).

The Chamber of Deputies approved this Wednesday in final reading the proposed measure that the representative of Ilocos Norte, Angelo Marcos Barba, his nephew, described as a greeting to “a brilliant man whose vision of the country remains unmatched.”

The late strongman came from the province and his family enjoys political influence there to this day.

Duterte is known to be close to the Marcos family, as his late father Vicente served in the late strongman’s pre-martial law cabinet.

In November 2016, Duterte allowed Marcos’s stealth burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani despite protests.

The late dictator’s family was known for leading luxurious lives during his strongman rule, with billions in ill-gotten wealth still to be recovered decades since the end of his rule.