VICE presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Tuesday he was no longer surprised each time vandals spray-paint “Marcos pa rin” on the Edsa People Power Monument, a sculpture commemorating the bloodless People Power Revolution in 1986.
“These are issues that I have been hearing,” said the senator who is statistically tied at the No. 1 spot with Senator Francis Escudero in the vice president race in the recent SWS and Pulse Asia surveys.
Marcos made his statement even as the Edsa People Power Commission condemned the defacing of the monument.
The commission said the monument stood as “a symbol of the people’s triumph over a dictatorship that distorted the rule of law and employed violence to impose its own political beliefs on an entire nation.
“This act of vandalism is an affront to all Filipinos who took a stand for human rights and democracy in the 1986 People Power Revolution,” group said in a statement.
“It belittles their heroism and sacrifice for our country.”
Marcos, a member of the Nacionalista Party, is running along with Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago of the People’s Reform Party. Escudero is the vice presidential bet of Senator Grace Poe, both of whom are running as independent candidates.
The son and namesake of the late strongman said all candidates had their detractors and supporters.
Edsa People Power Commission spokesman Celso Santiago posted on Facebook a photo of the defaced lower part of the Edsa monument with the “Marcos pa rin!” slogan written on the yellow and orange tiles.
The EPPC said it was “regrettable that the monument, which is deeply valued by millions of Filipinos, has to be desecrated to convey the vandal’s own political thoughts.
“We believe that the vandal should have resorted to alternative means of self-expression that respect both the rule of law and the viewpoints of others.”
