‘Hell no,’ says US Pinoys to Marcos’ hero burial

MANILA, Philippine – A group of prominent and influential Filipino-Americans strongly opposed the burial of the late ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the ‘Libingan ng mga Bayani’ on Tuesday, and urged President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III to act on the issue.

The ‘US Pinoys for Good Governance’, a group of businessman, lawyers, doctors, academicians, writers and community leaders, personally delivered a position paper to Aquino urging him to assume responsibility over the issue of Marcos’ burial.

The group asked Aquino to end the issue and to deny Marcos the privilege of a hero’s burial.

“We show our support to President Aquino and the country by asking him to do what is right,” Spokeperson Ted Laguatan said in the paper, adding that the abnegation of responsibility on the issue is very disturbing.

The Filipino-Americans’ group believed that Aquino did not provide the proper leadership to protect the nation from being dishonoured by the possible hero burial of “a despotic corrupt former president”, when he passed the issue to Vice Pres. Jejomar Binay.

“I sense even his [Aquino’s] most ardent supporter will be turned off if Marcos is buried as a hero under his watch,” Nevada surgeon Dr. Philip Chua said, adding that Aquino’s credibility is at stake in the issue.

“Instead of insisting that Marcos be buried at Libingan ng mga Bayani, his family should just refurbish his present Ilocos tomb and turn it into a shrine for themselves and their followers,” Loida Nicholas Lewis, New York based community leader and philantrophist said.

Citing the Christians’ view that burying Marcos in the heroes’ cradle is a sign of forgiveness, Jules Torres of Los Angeles said “not burying him as a hero does not mean we have not forgiven him. It just means we don’t want to lie by burying a scoundrel as a hero.”

The US Pinoy group in the paper also feared the damaging effect of a Marcos hero burial on the entire nation, and on the future generation of Filipinos.

“The honor and pride that we gained in the people’s revolution in EDSA I, and emulated by others to bring down oppressive regimes will be for naught,” San Francisco lawyer Rodel Rodis said, adding that the hero burial would mean changing historical facts.

He added, “It will be like saying that the martyred President’s father was the villain, and that the Marcoses were justified in eliminating him.”

“He [Aquino] should then openly declare to the Filipino people and to the world that the late dictator is not a hero, and that he owes it as his duty to the Filipino people – not to have him buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani now and forevermore,” the group said, adding that it is the right thing to do.

“We trust that the President will listen to our well-meant admonitions and perceive that doing the correct thing involves faithfulness to what is true and right,” Laguatan said.