House approves bill designating Marcos Day in Ilocos Norte

File Photo
File Photo

(UPDATED) Voting 197-9 with one abstention, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading a bill declaring September 11 of every year a special non-working holiday in Ilocos Norte to commemorate the birth of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

House Bill no. 7137 designates September 11 as President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos Day in Ilocos Norte.

It is a consolidated bill of HB numbers 2218 and 4595 filed by Ilocos Norte Representatives Angelo Marcos Barba and Ria Fariñas, who filed a bill together with her brother, Probinsyano Ako Party-list Representative Rudy Caesar “Baby Boy” Fariñas.

In his explanatory note for HB 2218, Barba said he filed the bill "as a salute to a brilliant man whose vision for the country remains unparalleled.”

"Under his leadership, we were ahead of our time – in agriculture, education, infrastructure, energy production, and foreign policy,” Barba claimed.

“His extraordinary display of leadership and incomparable brilliance serves as an inspiration to his fellow Ilocanos. He is a man of vision, action and wisdom. Thus, it is only necessary that his life, works, remarkable achievements, and inherent love for his fellow Ilocanos be remembered,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Fariñas siblings filed HB 4595 to honor the "pride" that Marcos brought to Ilocos.

“For the people of Ilocos Norte, the young and promising Marcos has brought pride to the province and served as inspiration for young leaders to exemplify his leadership and governance administration,” they said.

“It is, thus, aimed by this proposal to have the 11th day of September be declared as a special non-working holiday in the province of Ilocos Norte, to be known as ‘President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos Day’,” they said.

Marcos served as the President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He placed the country under martial law for nearly a decade from September 21, 1972 to January 1981 amid growing restlessness.

He was ousted through the People Power Revolution in February 1986.

In 2004, Forbes magazine ranked Marcos as the second most corrupt President in the world. (SunStar Philippines)

(Note: This story was updated to reflect the correction made by the House of Representatives in the voting results. The House initially declared the voting results as 198-8 with one abstention and later corrected these to 197-9 with one abstention.)

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