President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. admitted on Wednesday, September 11, that his father, the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent in the United States in the past.
Marcos Jr. made the admission in his speech during the Wreath-laying Ceremony Marcos Day Celebration in Batac, Ilocos Norte to commemorate his father’s 107th birthday of his father.
In his speech, Marcos Jr. said he was given access to classified records of his father from the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the former name of the CIA, during one of his visits to the US to see Marcos Sr.’s work during World War II.
“I will recount to you an experience that I had recently when I was in the United States and I was hosted by the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA. At ang request ko sa kanila: ‘Can I see some of the records about my father when he was working with the OSS?’,” Marcos Jr. said.
The elder Marcos, a decorated World War II veteran, is known for his role in resisting Japanese forces in the Philippines. For context, the CIA started out as the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) – a wartime agency established to help America win the Second World War.
However, the full extent of Marcos Sr.’s involvement with U.S. intelligence agencies during the war remains vague.
“The OSS was a predecessor of the CIA. And they allowed me (to see the files). They took me to the records room and they started to show me many of the records, the reports that were given during the war that are still secret,” Marcos Jr. said.
The younger Marcos said that his father was “greater than everyone realized” for the sacrifices that he made for the Philippines.
Despite his fascination with the materials, Marcos Jr. revealed that his request for copies of the documents was denied due to their classified status.
“And I asked CIA, ‘Maaari ba pakopya ko, iuwi ko?’ ‘Sorry, it is still classified,'” he shared, without further disclosing specific details about what he had seen, given the ongoing classified nature of the records.
In a separate statement, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) President Renato Reyes said Marcos Sr. was always a staunch supporter of the US, beholden to US interests.
“It is no surprise that the US backed the declaration of Martial Law in the Philippines and the dictatorship, despite the human rights violations and the corruption prevalent then,” Reyes said.
It’s worth noting that after EDSA People Power 1 ousted Marcos Sr., his family remained in Hawaii. Despite the numerous cases related to their ill-gotten wealth, none of them served even a minute in prison, even here in the Philippines, despite former First Lady Imelda Marcos being proven guilty in graft cases.
The Marcos family also owes the American courts $365 million and $2 billion to victims of human rights violations under Marcos Sr.’s dictatorship, according to former Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) commissioner Ruben Carranza in February 2022. (TCSP)
