Andanar’s remarks irk Koko Pimentel

Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar and Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS

Review your history.

This was the advice given on Monday by Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III to Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar after the latter described as “temperamental brats” those against the burial of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos at Libingan ng mga Bayani.

Acknowledging that the issue of a Marcos burial at Libingan was a “very emotional” one, Pimentel said he did not think protesters were temperamental brats.

“A lot of the protesters are coming from the poorer segments of society. They can never be called brats. These are actually principled stands,” Pimentel told a news conference.

“Martin Andanar should review his history,” Pimentel said.

In his column “Brew Point” in the Inquirer on Nov. 14, Andanar wrote: “Both the Americans protesting the outcome of a fair election and the Filipinos objecting to a well-considered ruling of our Supreme Court are undermining institutions. They are temperamental brats refusing to concede to the outcome of regular processes.”

Apology

But on Monday, Andanar offered his apologies for his controversial remarks.

“I apologize for the offense this may have caused. It was never my intention to trivialize, diminish, or in any way denigrate the struggles of the survivors of martial law and of those who oppose former president Marcos,” Andanar said.

Voting 9-5, the Supreme Court ruled last week that President Duterte did not commit grave abuse of discretion in allowing Marcos to be buried at Libingan in Taguig City.

In a dissenting opinion, Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno said Mr. Duterte’s order allowing the burial was unjust to victims of human rights abuses committed during martial law.

Pimentel said he would raise the Marcos burial issue with the President on Monday night when congressional leaders were to meet with the President on the preparation for the first Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council.

Asked whether there was hope Mr. Duterte would change his mind about allowing Marcos to be buried at Libingan, the Senate president said, “While there is life, there is hope.”

Last week, Pimentel said he would tell the President that Marcos was no hero and did not deserve to be buried at Libingan.

The Senate president earlier opined that the Supreme Court, which allowed the Marcos burial at Libingan, might have the authority to establish a right to be buried there “but a court cannot decide the hero’s status of somebody.”

“Being a hero is a collective decision of the people and the court,” Pimentel said.

As this developed, the Senate failed on Monday to adopt a resolution seeking to express the sense of the chamber that Marcos was unfit to be buried at Libingan.

Eight senators voted for Senate Resolution No. 86 by Sen. Risa Hontiveros, six voted against it while six others abstained from voting.

The motion to adopt the resolution was considered lost by Pimentel because it failed to muster a vote of the majority.

In this case, a majority vote entailed there should be 11 senators voting in favor of the resolution since there were 20 senators who voted.

Unfit at Libingan

It was the second time that the Senate took up Hontiveros’ resolution entitled “Expressing the sense of the Senate that the crimes of former President Ferdinand Marcos to the Republic, and the human rights violations committed under his regime, render him unfit to be buried at Libingan ng mga Bayani.”

Last week, the Senate took up the resolution but deferred action on it until Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III raised it on Monday, but yielded to Senate President Pro Tempore Franklin Drilon to preside over it because he “would rather stick to the sentiment of the Supreme Court.”

The high court’s ruling to allow the Marcos burial at Libingan led to many anti-Marcos rallies for the past weeks.

The eight senators who voted for the adoption of the resolution were Drilon, Hontiveros, Bam Aquino, Leila de Lima, Francis Pangilinan, Grace Poe, Joel Villanueva and Pimentel.

Voting against the resolution’s adoption were Senators Richard Gordon, Gregorio Honasan, Panfilo Lacson, Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao, Sotto and Cynthia Villar.

Abstaining from the vote were Juan Edgardo Angara, Nancy Binay, Francis Escudero, Sherwin Gatchalian, Ralph Recto and Juan Miguel Zubiri.

“The Senate is a political body and therefore it has a prerogative to express its views, especially on a political issue that we have voted upon. There is nothing wrong with going against the decision of the Supreme Court … each of us exercise his and her judgment on this political issue and we place on record where we stand. And therefore, let history judge us after today,” Drilon said. —WITH A REPORT FROM MARLON RAMOS