Palace: Marcos burial within the year

The late dictator Ferdinand Marcos may get his hero’s burial before the year ends, Malacañang said on Friday.

The President’s spokesperson Ernesto Abella said he could not provide a working date for Marcos’ burial at Libingan ng mga Bayani, but indicated that it was bound to happen soon.

“The best we can say is it will be within the year,” Abella said in a press briefing on Friday.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday denied petitions to stop President Duterte from allowing Marcos’ burial at the cemetery reserved for soldiers and heroes.

According to the tribunal, the order was well within Mr. Duterte’s prerogative as President.

Mr. Duterte earlier said he would allow Marcos to be laid to rest at Libingan ng mga Bayani because he was a former soldier, which under the law qualifies him to be buried there.

The decision has outraged martial law victims and their families, who view the move as an insult to the spirt of the 1986 people’s revolution that ousted Marcos after a 20-year rule.

They also fear that the decision would whitewash Marcos’ crimes against the people.

Several petitioners, led by martial law torture victims Satur Ocampo and Etta Rosales, have filed an urgent motion asking the Supreme Court to stop the Marcos family from burying the former President at the Libingan ng mga Bayan until the magistrates had ruled with finality on their motion for reconsideration which has yet to be filed.

The petitioners claimed that government officials, led by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea and Rear Admiral Ernesto C. Enriquez of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, were already preparing for the “hasty transfer” of Marcos’ cadaver from Batac, Ilocos Norte, to the Libingan ng mga Bayani even before the high court has yet to receive a motion to reconsider its 9-5 decision upholding President Duterte’s order to bury Marcos at the heroes’ cemetery.

Lawyer Ed Olalia of the National Union of Public Lawyers (NUPL), counsel of the anti-Marcos petitioners, said the 15-day period for the filing of the motion for reconsideration has not yet started since petitioners have yet to get a formal copy of the court ruling. Aside from Ocampo and Rosales, the other petitioners were Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman and former Senator Heherson Alvarez.

“There have been reports that the preparations for the interment of former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., are being undertaken by respondents causing concern among petitioners that his remains may be hastily transferred to the Libingan ng mga Bayani even before the filing of a Motion for Reconsideration by petitioners or during its pendency,” said Olalia.