Group honoring Ninoy to file protest vs Marcos burial

MARKING the 33rd anniversary of the assassination of Sen. Benigno S. Aquino Jr. on Sunday, the Ninoy Aquino Movement (NAM) said it would join other groups calling on the Supreme Court to stop the burial of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos at Libingan ng mga Bayani.

NAM founding chair Heherson Alvarez said the group was set to file on Monday a petition providing “multiple view points and appreciation of the masterful destruction of human life and civil liberties by Marcos.”

The petition would also be signed by religious groups, the August 21 Movement and the Earthsavers Unesco Dream Center, among others, he said.

A coalition of victims of human rights abuses during martial law is also protesting the transfer of the dictator’s remains to the cemetery for heroes.

Alvarez said he was not in favor of the plan to bury Marcos at Libingan ng mga Bayani because he “completely disregarded the Constitution and oppressed many Filipinos.”

Alvarez’ wife, Cecile Guidote, also a petitioner representing Earthsavers Unesco Dream Center, said the issue was “serendipitous” as it allowed for an opportunity to awaken the consciousness of Filipinos, particularly the millennials, about that dark period in Philippine history.

On the other hand, a party-list lawmaker who was among those who survived the Plaza Miranda bombing 45 years ago, backs the planned burial of Marcos at Libingan.

Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza said he believed allowing the dictator’s burial at the heroes’ cemetery would help put an end to an issue that has divided the country for the last three decades.

“The issue of his burial became a live, continuing, dividing issue. At this point in time, we have a president who is trying to unite the nation. [T]o end divisiveness, let us bury him,” Atienza told reporters in a news forum in Quezon City Friday.

At the same time, a group calling itself the “September 18 Movement for Healing, Unity and Change” launched a campaign backing the transfer of the late dictator’s remains from the mausoleum in Batac, Ilocos Norte, to Libingan in Taguig City.

The group is set to file on Sept. 1 a petition to the high court to allow Marcos’ burial at Libingan. With a report from Jovic Yee