Martial law victims file third petition vs hero’s burial for Marcos

Former human rights commissioner Loretta Rosales joins martial law torture victims in filing a third petition against the burial of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. VINCE F. NONATO

A new batch of martial law torture victims led by former human rights commissioner Loretta Rosales filed on Friday the third legal challenge to the planned burial of Ferdinand E. Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

Ibarra Gutierrez, lawyer of the 14 petitioners belonging to the Coalition Against Marcos Burial, said the latest petition raises new issues not discussed by the two cases filed before the Supreme Court earlier this week.

READ: Martial law victims run to SC to stop Marcos burial at Libingan

Gutierrez said the group hopes to be included in the oral arguments to be held on Wednesday as their petition raises constitutional issues and matters of international law and public policy.

He noted that no less than the 1987 Constitution itself is characterized by the 1986 Constitutional Commission as an “anti-dictatorship Constitution.”

“Mayroong indictment na implicit sa Constitution na si Marcos ay kriminal na hindi na dapat tularan,” he said. “He is a criminal, a plunderer and a human rights violator.”

(An indictment implicit in the Constitution states that Marcos is a criminal who must not be emulated. He is a criminal, a plunderer and a human rights violator.)

Gutierrez also cited that pertinent laws and jurisprudence already recognize Marcos as a human rights violator.

“Binabaligtad natin ang ating constitutional order, ang ating polisiya for the past 30 years. Hindi lang ito technical matter on who should be buried; it hits at the heart of the Constitution,” he said of the impending interment.

(Our constitutional order is being twisted, our policy for the past 30 years. This no mere technical matter on who should be buried; it hits the heart of the Constitution.) CDG

READ: SC sets hearing on burial of Marcos