Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban (PDP-Laban) standard bearer and Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa on Tuesday said fellow presidential bet Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. should publicly acknowledge the mistakes committed by his father.

Dela Rosa said that if it happened to him, he would personally apologize for the mistakes of his father he would personally apologize for the mistakes of his father as this isn’t hard to do so.

“Siguro, i-acknowledge niya kung mayroong mga kamalian na nagawa ang kanyang tatay. But hindi siya mag-apologize doon sa nagawa ng tatay niya (Maybe, he should acknowledge the wrongdoings of his father. But not apologize for the things that his father was able to accomplish),” Dela Rosa said in an interview on ANC’s Headstart.

“Dahil, ang kasalanan ng tatay ay hindi naman siguro kasalanan ng anak (because the sins of the father should not be blamed on his child),” he said.

“Kung ako, mag-apologize ako. Para sa akin (if it was me, I’d apologize. For me), but I don’t’ want to ascribe my own standards to Bongbong Marcos,” the senator pointed out.

“Fair lang tayo, kasalanan ng ama, hindi kasalanan ng anak. Pero kung nangyari sa akin yan, nagkasala yung tatay ko, wala namang problema kung mag-apologize ako. Madali lang naman gawin (Let’s be fair, the sin of the father, is not the sin of the child. If it happened to me, and my father committed a mistake, I have no problem apologizing for it. It’s easy to do),” he reiterated.

Marcos, son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. is among those who filed the certiificate of candidacy (COC) and running for president in the upcoming May 2022 elections. Critics have slammed the move and called on the Marcos family to apologize for the human rights violations committed by the administration during the martial law rule and for amassing billions of ill-gotten wealth.

Dela Rosa also said that if indeed there was ill-gotten wealth obtained by the Marcos family, these should be returned to the people.

However, Dela Rosa lamented how the issue on the Marcos family’s ill-gotten wealth has been a long-running issue and not been put to rest.

“Bakit ba tayo humantong sa ganito? 1986 pa yan, hindi pa pala tapos? Gaano ba kalaki yang ill-gotten wealth na yan? Akala ko tapos na yan. Napakatagal na panahon na yan (Why have we reached this point? That has been an issue since 1986, and yet it hasn’t died down? How big is that ill-gotten wealth? I thought that has been put to rest. It has long been an issue),” the lawmaker said.