HUNDREDS of people rallied in the Filipino capital Manila yesterday to protest against the reburial of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos in a heroes’ cemetery.
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The planned burial that serves as a “personification of everything that is undemocratic” will also contradict Republic Act No. 10368, or the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013.
“The interment of the remains of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani with the honours that supposedly befit only Filipino heroes with overall unblemished integrity and dignity is contrary to the constitution”, they said in the petition, referring to the cemetery.
Individual members of Bayan Muna party-list, Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacañang (CARMMA), and Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) sought a temporary restraining order that would stop the state burial slated this September.
In solidarity with them were those who took part in a peaceful revolution in 1986 that overthrew Marcos, forcing him and his family to flee to Hawaii where he died in 1989.
Be proactive – Use the “Flag as Inappropriate” link at the upper right corner of each comment to let us know of abusive posts. His remains are displayed in a glass coffin in his hometown.
“It does not matter if the Libingan ng mga Bayani was originally a cemetery for soldiers, one of Duterte’s justifications for burying Marcos there as a soldier”.
The respondents, according to the petitioners, committed grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction in ordering and allowing Marcos’ burial at the LNMB through a memorandum issued on August 7, 2016 by Lorenzana. “Like the many people who oppose his decision, I’m hoping that until the last day he will change his mind”. “There has been no closure because we don’t know where, who and how they were killed”, Lagman said in an interview.
Both sets of petitioners said allowing the dictator’s burial in a place reserved for heroes mocks the sacrifice of all those buried there before, and makes a travesty of the country’s avowed commitment to democracy and justice.
“A soldier disgraced” is how the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) describes Marcos; it says his record as a soldier during World War II was “fraught with myths, factual inconsistencies, and lies”.
Named respondents in the second petition were Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea, Defense Secretary Lorenzana, AFP Chief of Staff Visaya, AFP Deputy Chief of Staff Enriquez, and Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO) Administrator Lt. Gen. Ernesto G. Carolina (Ret.).
None of that history is mentioned in Batac, where a “Marcos museum” extolling the former president stands near the elaborate mausoleum, which features black marble floors, a sound system, a ceiling painted like the sky and an “eternal flame” meant to recall the grave site of John F. Kennedy.
“The President’s stance, however, remains firm: There is clarity in the regulations governing the late President Marcos burial”, he added.
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Such insistence, the CPP said, “reveals his (Duterte’s) indifference to people’s demands” and “displays extreme insensitivity to the sensibilities of thousands of victims, families and survivors of martial law barbarities”.
