Sen. Leila de Lima —INQUIRER PHOTO
Former President Ferdinand Marcos may have been buried in an underhanded ceremony at the Libingan ng mga Bayani but it will not bury the truth on the human rights abuses and plunders committed during his regime, according to Sen. Leila de Lima.
“At the end, they cannot bury the truth about the violence and plunders committed during the martial law (era),” De Lima said on Friday.
The senator said the family of the former dictator and even the current administration could not hide the truth from the public.
De Lima, one of the seven petitioners at the Supreme Court to stop Marcos’ interment at the LNMB, said she was not only surprised by the hasty, sneaky burial of Marcos, but like the rest of the Filipinos, felt insulted by the move.
“Para bang ang iniisip ng mga tao bakit po ganyan, binibigla lang po tayo. Masyado lang po tayo iniinsulto. Nasindak na nga ho tayo sa desisyon ng Korte Suprema, lalo tayong sinindak diyan sa circumstances behind that burial. Very surreptitious,” she said.
De Lima reiterated the position of her fellow petitioners that while the high court had lifted the status quo ante order, the decision was not yet final and executory.
“Everybody was taken by surprise because first of all, we see the Supreme Court decision to be not yet final and executory because there is nothing there in the dispositive portion of that decision which says so,” De Lima said.
Therefore, she said the decision is subject to the 15-day rule of filing motion for reconsideration.
Only after 15 days, if no motion for reconsideration was filed, could the decision become final and executory, she said.
The senator said she wanted to join street protests but she needed to attend budget deliberations.
“Gusto ko rin po sanang sumama diyan sa mga protesta na ’yan na nagaganap at magaganap ngayong araw, at posible sa mga susunod pang araw,” De Lima said./rga