Poe clarifies: Granting Marcos hero’s burial should be ‘in accordance with law’
Senator Grace Poe made it clear on Saturday that the decision whether or not to give former President Ferdinand Marcos a hero’s burial must be “in accordance with the law.”
“The decision should be harmonized with the intentions in Republic Act 10368 on the reparation and recognition of human rights violations during the Marcos regime,” Poe, who is running for president in May, said in a statement.
“The law makes it the policy of the State, and I quote, ‘to recognize 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 during the regime of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos covering the period from September 21, 1972 to February 25, 1986 and restore the victims’ honor and dignity,’” she said.
Poe issued the statement after the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that she was open to allowing Marcos’ burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
READ: Poe open to Marcos burial at ‘Libingan’
The senator denied the statement.
“I have been consistent about this from the very beginning. Former President Ferdinand Marcos deserves to be accorded proper burial. As to where, I would like to clarify that I did not state in an earlier interview that I am open to allowing the burial, and I quote the report, “wherever that may be,” and which would naturally include the Libingan ng mga Bayani,” said Poe.
“To state the fact, my exact quote was: ‘Dapat talagang malagay na sa maayos ang paglilibing kay President Marcos, kung ano pa man ‘yan.’”
(President Marcos should properly be buried, whatever that is.)
But Poe said that the matter of the burial of the late strongman “is not for the incumbent President alone to decide on.”
READ: It’s final: Aquino won’t grant Marcos hero’s burial
The burial issue was raised by a reporter during a press conference in Tacloban City on Friday.
In that presscon, Poe also said that the Marcos family should make a specific request to allow the former president to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
“At kung mayroon mag mag kukwestiyon niyan, ang korte po ang mag dedesisyon niyan sapagkat doon nga sa batas na iyon maaring magkaroon ng conflict kasi if you recognize the suffering and the indignity doon ng Human Rights baka magkaroon ng teknikal na dahilan kung bakit hindi pwede doon,” she further said.
(If anyone would question that, the court will have to decide because there might be a conflict in the law that if you recognize the suffering and indignity committed to human rights at that time, there might be a technical reason why he cannot be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.) IDL
