Can SC still stop the Marcos burial today?

Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos leads the wreath-laying ceremony to mark the birthday of her father last September in Sarrat. EV ESPIRITU / INQUIRER NOTHERN LUZON

All indications are that the burial of the remains of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani will proceed today, November 18 — 10 days after the Supreme Court dismissed the petitions seeking to stop it.

Can the Court still issue a temporary restraining order? Supreme Court spokesperson Atty. Theodore Te said that, because “The Supreme Court is in between sessions,” only Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno can issue a TRO, “if there is a request and a written recommendation of the ponente.”

The writer of the majority decision in the Ocampo v. Enriquez cases is Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta. The vote was 9-5, with one justice inhibiting himself from the deliberations and the voting.

Isn’t there a pending motion for reconsideration? “To my knowledge there is none,” Te told the Inquirer, “because parties have said they have not received a copy yet.” He explained that “the decision says the SQA (the status quo ante order) is lifted so there is no prohibition to the burial.”

Both the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police have belatedly confirmed that the controversial burial, which has been actively resisted by victims of martial rule, will take place at noon today, with the Marcos family requesting a “private” ceremony. In its decision, the Supreme Court confirmed that the Libingan ng Mga Bayani was both a military cemetery and a national shrine./rga