Photos from OACPA HPA
Deputy Speaker Fredenil Castro yesterday reminded Ferdinand Marcos loyalists that the dictator was buried at Libingan ng mga Bayani not as a hero, according to the Supreme Court, but as a former president and soldier.
“It did not say that he would be buried at Libingan ng mga Bayani because he is a hero. That is an issue that has yet to be resolved to this day because it was sidestepped by the Supreme Court,” Castro said in a radio interview.
“What the Supreme Court merely said was he can be buried there because he was a soldier and a former President, and that is in accordance to the law,” said the Capiz representative.
Castro said the Marcos loyalists should not blow up the issue by saying that Marcos was a hero.
“Perhaps they should just keep that in their hearts because that has yet to be proven. And in fact, that heroism is under question because of the many things discovered … which does not qualify him to be a hero. In fact, many say that [Marcos] faked his records and medals. Even the US government said it did not confer to him a medal,” Castro said.
To those opposing the burial, Castro said there was “enough legal process that where they could ventilate their opposition.”
“We have the laws like the right to claim damages. If they know who were responsible for the death or disappearance of their loved ones,” Castro said, adding the prescriptive period for criminal liability does not apply in this instance as the perpetrators have not yet been identified and haled to court.
Castro, a lawyer and former activist, was also a martial law victim.
Asked if the atrocities could still be blamed on Marcos, Castro said it was possible.
“But considering he has died, it is his estate that would be liable for this. Criminal liability ceases after his death … And since his estate had been inherited by his children, it is his children who would be responsible for the damages,” Castro said. —NIKKO DIZON