HONOLULU, Hawaii — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Saturday (Sunday in Manila) said Filipinos here gave his family everything they needed after the 1986 People Power Revolution forced them into exile in America's 50th state.
Leaving Malacañang Palace empty-handed after his father and namesake was deposed after serving as president for decades, Marcos said Filipinos in Hawaii touched his family's life in many ways.
"The people, we owe a debt of gratitude that we will never be able to repay," Marcos said of the generosity of the countrymen who welcomed them. "These are the people that kept us alive for six years."
He added that the Marcoses might not be alive now were it not for the support they got from worried kababayans or countrymen.
"We could not have survived without you," Marcos said. "That's why when I went to San Francisco, I insisted we pass by Hawaii because even if I thank you every day for 1,000 years, it is not enough for all the things you did to us."
He revealed that his mother, the former First Lady Imelda Marcos, asked him to show their gratitude to Filipinos in Hawaii.
It was Marcos' first public return to Hawaii, 40 years after his family was exiled with the rise to power of the late Cory Aquino.
During the revolt, the Marcos family boarded a US military aircraft, with some accounts saying they believed they were being brought to their bailiwick in the Ilocos.
However, the plane brought them instead to Hawaii, where Marcos Sr. would die in 1989 due to several ailments.
During an interview in San Francisco, Marcos stated that he feels no need to forgive anyone for his family's hardships, acknowledging that Filipinos were acting based on their convictions and beliefs at the time.
"If this is what they believe they should do, then our way of thinking or belief not only differs but doesn't align," Marcos said.
"I think by now, I hope you have realized that I don't take things personally. They don't need my forgiveness. If they want it, I will give it to them," Marcos said.