PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday vowed to push through with the burial of deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City despite threats of protests.
Even though the Marcos years were marked by widespread corruption and rights abuses, Duterte said that as a former president and soldier, the late dictator was qualified to be buried in the special cemetery.
“I will allow him to be buried there. He is qualified to be buried there. If other Filipinos don’t like it, fine,” he said in a pre-dawn speech to soldiers and reporters.
Marcos’ family has kept his preserved body on display after he died in exile in 1989 following a popular revolt three years earlier, demanding that it be buried with full honors in the Heroes’ Cemetery.
Marcos was elected president in 1965 and declared martial law in 1972, allowing him to rule as a dictator while he, his family and allies were accused of enriching themselves through massive corruption as his troops brutally stamped out dissent.
But Duterte, who has styled himself as an anti-corruption crusader, defended Marcos, noting that his father had served in the Marcos Cabinet and he himself had even voted for Marcos before.
Duterte has previously said that he won the May 9 elections partly with the support of the Marcos family who remain influential in their bailiwick in the north.
The Marcos family has made a remarkable political comeback since the death of their patriarch.
The Marcos widow, Imelda, is a congresswoman representing the family’s northern provincial stronghold, while Ferdinand Marcos Jr. narrowly lost election as vice president in May.
But Rafaela David, spokeswoman of activist group Akbayan Youth, said the organization would step up its protests against the burial.
“This is the Filipino people saying we do not recognize Marcos as a hero. We have a lot of people who have experience with martial law and are trying to get their stories across... so more people get to know the truth about the Marcos legacy,” she said.
On Thursday, the National Historical Commission of the Philippines scored the plan to bury Marcos, saying he changed parts of history to support his claim of being a war hero.
But Duterte defended his decision. “There is a law that must be followed. He was a soldier. He was there to fight for his country,” Duterte said of the late president.
Duterte said he will let the Marcos family decide when to bury their dead.
Arrangements are being made for a Sept. 18 burial, Marcos Jr. said.
In a statement, the former senator said his family was thankful to Duterte for allowing his father’s burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, calling it a “kind, rightful and healing” gesture.
“It has always been our family’s position that it is our father’s right under the law to be buried there being a former soldier and President of our country. Our campaign has always been towards achieving unity to move the country forward,” Marcos said.
“And it is this kind of pronouncement that we hope could end the decades of divisiveness imposed upon us by our leaders,” he added.
But Senate President Pro Tempore Franklin Drilon urged the President to reconsider his decision, saying the sensitive issue would divide the people and reopen the wounds of the past.
Senator Francis Pangilinan also objected to burying the former President at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
“Burying a murderer and a thief in the Libingan ng mga Bayani is not moving on....it is teaching our children to honor murderers and plunderers....It is not going to heal the nation nor will it unite us...it will only deeply divide us, reopen deep wounds of those who suffered, causing them to relive the gnawing pain and memory of loved ones jailed, tortured, murdered, salvaged or who disappeared because of the tyranny and oppression of the dictatorship.”
“How can one forgive when there is neither remorse nor atonement on the part of the Marcos family?” he added.
