Marcos on revisiting Hawaii after his family’s 1986 exile: ‘It’s a great place to be’

President Marcos doesn’t want to get too sentimental about his return to Hawaii, which was home to the Marcos family after their exile from the Philippines in 1986, and instead simply wants to visit “old friends.”

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. addresses the Philippine media after the 2023 APEC Leaders’ Meeting in San Francisco, California. (Photo from the Presidential Communications Office)

“Now, of course, Honolulu and Hawaii in general have different dimension also because nga that was the time that we were in exile. But that dimension is not some kind of, I don’t know, full circle. No, it’s not like that,” he said.

“It’s just I really want to go and see my old friends. These were the people who looked after us after ‘86. These were the people who fed us. They brought us clothes. They brought food. Kung hindi sa kanila (If not for them), I don’t know what would have happened to us,” the President added.

It is to be believed that Marcos was not able to visit a United States territory since 2012 because of a contempt judgment against him, mother Imelda, and the estate of the Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

This is in relation to the Marcoses violating an injunction that barred them from dissipating their US assets. The contempt judgment was handed down based on the 1991 decision of the US District Court of Hawaii that prohibited them from touching their assets as these can be used for reparation.

He can now visit because as head of state, he has diplomatic immunity.

While the President said they were sad after the exile because they couldn’t go back to the Philippines, they “made very many friends . . . that doesn’t detract from how kind we were treated, the hospitality that we were afforded.”

“So, yes, of course, it’s different in that sense. But it’s just a kind of a revisiting and just visiting with really old friends that – who shared our difficult times together and helped lighten the load, I have to say, helped lighten the load for us in the time of exile,” he added.

Their friends in Hawaii, where his own father died in 1989, “occupy a special place in my heart.”

While others have already passed away, the President said he is already in contact with those who are still alive and asked them “show up because I want to see you after so many years.”

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” he told them.

Marcos is in the United States for a week-long visit, and is expected to be in Hawaii from Nov. 18 to 19.

There, the Chief Executive will visit the Indo-Pacific Command, where he is expected to discuss the territorial issues in the West Philippine Sea.