Marcos Jr. cites 'CIA' records on dad's heroism, but accounts say otherwise

MANILA, Philippines — Records and investigations the US government have long discredited Ferdinand Marcos Sr.'s claims of heroism during World War II, but his son and namesake has proclaimed that his feats are recorded with the Central Intelligence Agency.

While celebrating Marcos Day in his bailiwick of Ilocos Norte on Wednesday, September 11, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. fondly recalled Marcos Sr.’s love for the country, saying he often looked to his father for wisdom. He had declared Marcos Day a holiday in the province, commemorating Marcos Sr.'s birthday.

The president recalled one of his visits to the US, where he claimed to have met with the director of the CIA. Marcos Jr. said he then asked the director if he could see his father’s files with the Office of Strategic Service (OSS), the precursor to the CIA.

“I asked them: ‘Can I see some of the records about my father when he was working with the OSS?’” Marcos said in a mix of English and Filipino. 

“They allowed me. 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. And I mean he was greater than even we realized. The things that he did, the things that — the sacrifices that he made for the Philippines,” Marcos Jr. said. 

Marcos Jr. said he asked the CIA if he could take the records home, but they told him the files remain classified.

Marcos Jr. has made four official visits to the United States since he became president in 2022. On these trips, he went to New York, Washington DC, Arlington in Virginia, San Francisco and Los Angeles in California as well as Honolulu, Hawaii.

It is not on public record that he met with the CIA director, William J. Burns, whose headquarters is in Langley, Virginia. But Marcos did visit the Pentagon in Arlington.

While the meeting could have taken place in any of these venues, it is difficult to independently verify Marcos Jr's account of his meeting with Burns, and the existence of classified records.

The CIA’s website, however, has reposted a New York Times article from Jan. 23, 1986 titled “Marcos’s Wartime Role Discredited in US Files” by Jeff Gerth and Joel Brinkley.

It