Sarah Fergusson of ABC News, Australia interviewed Ferdinand Marcos Jr. It was a masterclass on how to interview a politician – asking the hard questions that, unfortunately, most journalists in the Philippines seem to have forgotten or have chosen to forget
Here’s a portion of the interview:
SARAH FERGUSON: There is one series of questions that comes up in relation to your father’s time which is, which is, of course, the question of corruption which became wholly associated with the Philippines for a long period of time. I think contemporary court judgements acknowledge the atrocities that were committed but also the plunder of the country’s resources.
Why wouldn’t you want all of that money back in the hands of the Filipino people?
FERDINAND MARCOS JR: Well, with the narrative…[laughs dismissively]
SARAH FERGUSON: May I just ask you why that is funny?
FERDINAND MARCOS JR: Why that?
SARAH FERGUSON: Why that is funny. I’m asking you a question about the plundering of large sums of money from the Filipino people…
FERDINAND MARCOS JR: No. I’m thinking that that maintains, that idea maintains because I take exception to many many of the assertions that have been made.
And I think we have been, we have since the cases were filed, the government fell. Cases were filed against me, my family, the estate etc and up to now we have, the assertions that were made, we have been shown to be untrue.
SARAH FERGUSON: Quite a lot of money, I think $5 billion was already recovered. I guess the quetion is …
FERDINAND MARCOS JR: Again, again, again…
SARAH FERGUSON: Do you not want to see all the money that was taken returned to the people?
FERDINAND MARCOS JR: Again, we have signed, this family has signed a quitclaims, we have signed many quitclaims. Any money that you find is yours and finished and everything was taken from us.
We went, we were taken to Hawaii. Everything. Everything was taken from us with nothing, we have nothing left.
SARAH FERGUSON: Not the view of the presidential commission.
FERDINAND MARCOS JR: I’m sorry?
SARAH FERGUSON: Not the view of the presidential commission. This is my final question on this topic.
FERDINAND MARCOS JR: Which presidential commission?
SARAH FERGUSON: In the Philippines? Their view is there is a large amount of money outstanding.
FERDINAND MARCOS JR: I think that having seen the facts, as they have been slowly revealed, further true investigation, not propaganda, but actual true investigation, the court cases and investigations by all kinds of NGOs, different agencies, that has changed and people can see that it was propaganda.