Malacanang mum on Binay recommendations for Marcos burial

LAOAG CITY – Malacanang has yet to respond to Vice President Jejomar Binay’s recommendations on the burial of former president Ferdinand Marcos, his daughter and Ilocos Governor Imee Marcos said Saturday.

Marcos issued the statement on the eve of the strongman’s 94^th birthday.

Ilocos Norte laid out a full day of activities Sunday, Marcos Day, the congresswoman said, although newsmen were more interested on the family’s announcement about what they would do with Marcos’ preserved body.

When asked, the governor said, “The Palace has not yet reacted to the recommendations made by the Vice President [Jejomar Binay].”
Marcos said her family would decide when it hears from President Aquino.

Binay had announced here in August that talks with the Marcos family and a survey convinced him that the late strongman should be buried in Ilocos Norte.

“But the Marcos family has already agreed to have the burial in Ilocos Norte,” Binay said then in the presence of Ilocos Norte Representative Imelda Romualdez Marcos during the launch of a program for local housing projects.

Camarines Sur Governor Luis Raymond Villafuerte Jr., a guest of Ms Marcos, said he would lobby members of the Governor’s League of the Philippines to pursue a heroes’ burial for the late strongman.

Villafuerte and the Camarines Sur officials entered a sisterhood pact with Ilocos Norte on Saturday evening.

“Camarines Sur owes a huge debt of gratitude to Ferdinand Marcos for the Maharlika Highway that now bridges Bicol and Metro Manila,” he told fellow officials at the sisterhood signing ceremony.

He repeated the statement at a news conference. Villafuerte, vice chairman of the governors’ league, said he wanted to pass a resolution stipulating that deposed president Marcos’ only burial place should be at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani.

During their bantering, both governors also alluded to a political campaign to bring another Marcos to the presidency.

Villafuerte later said that they were referring to Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon