SC stops preparations for a hero’s burial for Marcos

Supreme Court. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The Supreme Court en banc has temporarily stopped a hero’s burial for the late President Ferdinand Marcos as it hears six petitions filed by martial law victims seeking to oppose the plan of the Duterte administration.

SC spokesman Theodore Te on Tuesday said the high court en banc during a session last August 16 accepted and consolidated the six petitions filed by groups of martial law victims, and “issued a status quo order for twenty days.”

READ: SC halts preparations for Marcos’ burial at Libingan

The 20-day period  covers calendar days from Tuesday, August 23 to September 11.

“The status quo ante order essentially is an order that tells the respondents not to perform the actions for a certain period, in this case it pertains to the issuance of memorandum by the Department of National Defense (to hold a hero’s burial for former President Marcos),” Te explained in a press briefing.

The high court also rescheduled the oral arguments  to August 31 at 10 a.m. from August 24 at 9 a.m.

Te said the Court en banc also granted the request of the SC Public Information Office to livestream the audio of the oral arguments in the petitions against Marcos hero’s burial “subject to the usual conditions and restrictions imposed.”

The Supreme Court earlier consolidated the four petitions to oppose the hero’s burial for Marcos.

These included those filed by former National Democratic Front of the Philippines consultant and martial law victim Satur Ocampo; Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman and the members of Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND); former Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chairperson and martial law victim Loretta Ann Rosales; and former environment secretary Heherson Alvarez.

Te said the high court en banc also “accepted and consolidated the petitions filed by UP students led by Zaira Patricia Baniaga; and Algamar Latiph of CHR Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao) with these consolidated petitions.”

Petitioners led by Ocampo earlier said that the hero’s burial for Marcos is contrary to Republic Act 10368 or the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013 that recognized human rights violations during Marcos regime.

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

The group said such plan is also contrary to AFP Regulations G 161-373, which states that “those who have been dishonorably discharged from service, or personnel convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude, do not qualify for interment as well as Republic Act 289 which provides that the purpose of the construction of the LNMB (Libingan ng mga Bayani) is “to perpetuate the memory of all Presidents of the Philippines, national heroes and patriots for the inspiration and emulation of this generation and of generations still unborn.”

“It can be validly raised that the intent and spirit of this regulation is anathema or is mocked by the planned interment of the late dictator even if technically and strictly speaking he has not been “dishonorably discharged from service,” or “convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude,’” the petitioners said. RAM/rga