Aquino studying now, Imelda praying; dig later

Don’t dig the grave just yet.

President Benigno Aquino III is still studying Vice President Jejomar Binay’s recommendation that the remains of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos be buried with full military honors in his home province of Ilocos Norte.

And the dictator’s widow, Ilocos Norte Representative Imelda Marcos, is hedging her bets, saying she was leaving to God the matter of where she should bury him. Marcos died in Hawaii in 1989.

After saying on Friday that a statement on Binay’s recommendation would be issued yesterday, Malacañang said making a decision on where Marcos should be interred was not a simple matter.

“We don’t want to preempt the President in this case. So at the moment we still can’t give a statement because the recommendation is still being studied,” Abigail Valte, Mr. Aquino’s deputy spokesperson, said on radio.

A little more time

Valte said there were many things to consider before arriving at a decision.

She said the President should be allowed “just a little [more] time to go over [Binay’s] recommendation and … to decide what he will approve and, if ever, what he will not approve.”

Faced by the revived call for Marcos to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, Mr. Aquino had assigned Binay the task of deciding on the prickly issue.

The Office of the Vice President proceeded to conduct consultations and surveys and came up with the suggestion that the dictator’s remains, kept in a refrigerated crypt in Batac, Ilocos Norte, since 1993, be buried in the province with full military honors.

A Palace source has confirmed that such a recommendation was made.

Asked yesterday about the Palace’s position, Valte said: “There are not just historical issues but there are issues also on protocol. … It’s not as simple as it seems.”

She said Mr. Aquino, the only son of the dictator’s political enemies, “only wants to see how the recommendation was arrived at.”

She added that a statement on the matter might be issued by the Palace today or tomorrow.

After 22 years

Marcos’ eldest daughter, Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos, yesterday said the family had yet to confer with Binay. She said she was told that Binay had left for the United States and would be away for much of the month.

“We are happy that after 22 years, the burial is finally being talked about. With prayer and compassion, my family and the country will hopefully find closure,” the governor said in a text message to the Inquirer.

If Imelda Marcos’ presence yesterday in Sarrat, Ilocos Norte, was an indication, she might be considering the town where her husband was born and raised as his final resting place.

The former first lady arrived in the province on Friday night and made Sarrat her first stop the next day for the jubilee celebration of the Diocese of Laoag at the Sta. Monica Church.

“Maybe there is a divine plan [as to] where Marcos will be buried. I am now in Sarrat, his birthplace,” she said.

Asked whether Batac was also on the list of possible burial sites, the widow said: “Batac is the [family’s] official residence. We will follow the divine plan; I have always followed the divine plan. We will make the final decision. [That decision] will depend on what heaven says.”

She also said that Marcos deserved a hero’s burial but “it is ultimately the Divine who rules who is a hero, and not men.”

“We are not sure whether all heroes [at the Libingan ng mga Bayani] will go to heaven,” she added.

Both important

Sarrat is important to the Marcoses.

The family maintained a two-story bahay na bato (old stone house) in Sarrat. The house was abandoned after the 1986 Edsa revolt that toppled the dictatorship, but it was later restored and converted into a museum.

The dictator’s youngest daughter, Irene Marcos-Araneta, was married in Sarrat’s Sta. Monica Church in 1983.

Fabian Ver, Marcos’ childhood friend who served as his military chief, was also born in Sarrat. Ver died in Bangkok, but his remains were flown to Sarrat and buried there in 1998.

But Batac is likewise important, and Mayor Jeffrey Nalupta said he was hopeful that his city would be chosen as Marcos’ burial place.

Batac has been the clan’s political launching pad since the time of the dictator’s father, Mariano Marcos, who was a representative of Ilocos Norte’s second district.