Martial Law victims, from left, Rodolfo Dela Cruz, Fr. Dionilo Cabillas, former Congressman and Human Rights lawyer Nery Colmenares, Bonifacio Ilagan, Felix Dalisay, Carmelita Florentina and Danilo Dela Fuente, display documents prior to filing a petition before the Supreme Court seeking to stop the burial at the Heroes Cemetery of the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos Monday, Aug. 15, 2016, in Manila, Philippines.
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Burying a dictator accused of massive rights violations and plunder at the heroes’ cemetery has always been an emotional and divisive issue in the Philippines, where Marcos was ousted by a “people power” revolt in 1986.
Republic Act No 10368 recognises “the heroism and sacrifices of all Filipinos who were victims of summary execution, torture, enforced or involuntary disappearance and other gross human-rights violations” committed under Marcos and seeks to restore their “honour and dignity”.
President Rodrigo Duterte had been unwavering in his stance to allow the Marcoses to bury their patriarch at the cemetery for heroes since the former president was also a soldier.
More than 40,000 people are buried in the cemetery. Who are the people?
“The worst victims of Marcos’ atrocities during martial law are the desaparecidos because not even makeshift crosses mark their unknown graves”, he said.
President Marcos brutally repressed dissent until he was overthrown in 1986.
Chanting “Marcos, not a hero”, hundreds of people held a protest on Sunday at a park to oppose the government plan.
They included human rights activists, former legislators, students, victims of abuse under Marcos’ 20-year rule and Catholic nuns and clergy.
LAOAG CITY, Philippines- Strongman Ferdinand Marcos died in exile in Honolulu, Hawaii, on September 28, 1989, and a plane loaded with Filipino migrants brought home his body four years later.
For his role in ousting Marcos, Ramos was appointed defence chief and later elected president, serving from 1992 to 1998.
Almost 30,000 Filipinos have signed a petition urging Duterte to reconsider allowing Marcos’s burial in the cemetery, which the document said would be “an affront to the thousands of lives tortured and murdered during his reign”. Marcos’ remains are in a refrigerated crypt in his home province in northern Philippines.
Former first lady Imelda Marcos kisses the glass coffin of her husband, Ferdinand Marcos, who remains unburied since his death in 1989, during her birthday celebrations in July 2014. It was the biggest gathering so far since President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the burial of Marcos with full military honors and with the opposition announcing its plan to file a petition with the Supreme Court.
Alunan told reporters he did not know if the accord could be considered legally binding but remarked: “I would think that because the agreement is still in force, then both sides should honour it”.
Named respondents in the petition were Mrs Marcos, representing the heirs of Marcos; Lorenzana; Rear Admiral Ernesto Enriquez, deputy AFP chief of staff for reservist and retiree affairs; and General Ricardo Visaya, AFP chief of staff.
“Marcos is no hero”. He was a mass murderer, torturer and a plunderer.
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People in Ilocos Norte have also started preparations for the Marcos burial.
