Palace: Can we make it any clearer?

Malacañang on Sunday made it clear there would be no state honors and funeral for the late President Ferdinand Marcos and that it was up to his family to bury him.

“Well, for us the matter of the burial remains a family issue and there is no need to force anyone to do anything. You cannot force someone to apologize or to acknowledge something that they do not want to do,’’ deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said in a radio interview.

Valte was reacting to Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong’’ Marcos Jr.’s assailing Mr. Aquino for his pronouncement that there would be no state honors or hero’s burial for the late dictator while he was president.

Marcos had also reiterated his family won’t apologize for any human rights violations committed during the regime of his father, saying there had been no convictions.

President Aquino last week said that to allow a hero’s burial for the late strongman would be the “height of injustice’’ considering the suffering inflicted on many people during martial law.

The President, Valte said, had “already decided.’’

“He was asked to decide and he did. So let us all respect the President’s decision,’’ she said over state radio dzRB.