The Claim: Robredo cannot criticize martial law nor Marcos because her father was appointed by Marcos as judge
Rating: FALSE
While it is true that VP Leni Robredo’s father, the late Antonio Gerona Sr., was appointed as Municipal judge by then-president Marcos (https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/…/leni-robredos-father…), he does not owe Marcos or his administration itself for his appointment. Public servants and public positions are jobs in service of the people, not in service of the administration and its top brass.
At the same time, Robredo herself went a different path from her father.
In fact, even as Gerona Sr. was in office as municipal judge, his daughter was at the University of the Philippines Diliman campus, and actively participating in protests against the Marcos dictatorship (https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/…/leni-robredo-best-man…).
By the time Robredo would complete her law education and pass the bar exam, it would be 1997, more than a decade past the conclusion of martial law.
Even now, Robredo remains a staunch critic of martial law (https://www.philstar.com/…/robredo-urges-filipinos…).
Though her father’s position may have been assigned by the late dictator, this does not mean Robredo cannot criticize the martial law. In fact, it is a tribute to the father for instilling critical thinking in her daughter and letting her beat her own path.
Indirectly benefiting from the proclamation does not erase the validity of her criticisms, nor does it erase the ills that the regime have inflicted upon the Filipino people and the plundered wealth the administration acquired. Patronage politics should be discouraged in a proper democracy.
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