Several individuals file two more petitions against the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
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The government also argued the burial grounds located in Taguig City is not reserved for “heroes” under law: “To quell any doubts, the interment of the remains of former President Marcos does not confer upon him the status of a “hero.’ Despite the name, “Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes” Cemetery),’ the long history of said cemetery tells us that its objective has neither been to confer the people buried therein with the title of ‘hero” nor to require that only those buried therein should be treated as heroes”.
Members of Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan – mostly students of the University of the Philippines – filed a petition for certiorari before the SC on Monday, August 22.
They argued that Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana “may have abused his authority” in ordering the preparations for the interment scheduled in September.
The petitions will be heard by the SC in oral argument tomorrow starting at 9 a.m.
Calida also rebutted petitioners’ citation of Republic Act No. 289 (law regulating a heroes’ cemetery), saying such law covers not the Libingan but rather the national pantheon, which was supposed to be built at East Avenue in Quezon City by virtue of Proclamation No. 431 issued by President Elpidio Quirino on December 23, 1953 but did not materialize.
As in the earlier petitions, the 4th case contends that Marcos has been disqualified from a hero’s burial when he was ousted by the 1986 People Power Revolution, and that acknowledging him as hero contradicts Republic Act 10836 or the Human Rights Victims Reparations Act.
“We can not with a clear conscience accept that Marcos the tyrant lies beside the nation’s genuine freedom fighters”.
Whereas the government in its comment acknowledged the dark years of martial law, Mr. Marcos’s heirs, in their 32-page comment, said of human-rights violations during martial rule as claimed by the petitioners: “Apart from being irrelevant to the issue at hand, the allegations may not be assumed as facts but needs to be established with competent evidence”.
He also explained that President Duterte, in his wisdom, deems it appropriate to inter the remains of former President Marcos in a parcel of land of the public domain devoted for the objective of being a military shrine, and recognize his being a former President, a Medal of Valor awardee, a member of the retired military personnel, and a war veteran. Would Hitler be a hero in Germany? Alvarez said in Filipino. “Ang hinihingi namin dito, tingnan ang agos ng kasaysayan”.
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There will be no justice, only more indignity, to a people who fought and deposed a plunderer and human rights violator par excellence, and were never truly vindicated for the wrongs committed against them and the generations after them.
