Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
There is nothing unchristian in exhuming the remains of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani because jurisprudence allows it in cases of litigation, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said on Tuesday.
In the press briefing of the “Magnificent Seven” minority bloc at the House of Representatives, Lagman, a petitioner against Marcos’ burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, said the Supreme Court has made decisions allowing the exhumation of one’s remains.
Lagman said the Supreme Court earlier allowed the wife of a deceased lawyer to exhume the remains of her the husband after the common-law wife managed the burial.
READ: SC urged to order exhumation of Marcos remains at Libingan
“They are most likely unaware of Supreme Court decisions which have ruled that exhumation in proper places is allowed. There was one case where the legal wife was separated from the deceased husband a long time, and the common-law wife managed the burial,” Lagman said of those criticizing their move to exhume the Marcos body as “unchristian.”
“The legal wife filed the petition, it was initially denied by the trial court but consequently the Supreme Court ruled that the legal wife has the right to … determine where the deceased husband should be buried. So the Supreme Court ordered the exhumation,” he added.
READ: Lagman: Ask SC to exhume Marcos’ body to check if wax or not
Lagman said there are several more Supreme Court decisions allowing the exhumation of a body in cases of litigation which do not describe the exhumation as unchristian.
“The Supreme Court did not consider that unchristian, because such a Supreme Court decision to order the exhumation of the deceased in proper cases. And this case is a proper case, because the implementation of the decision of the Supreme Court is not valid and executory,” Lagman said.
Lagman filed a motion to exhume the body before the Supreme Court in order to determine if the interred remains were the bones or the wax figure of the dictator.
WATCH: Marcos buried at Libingan ng mga Bayani
Lagman also said the hasty secret burial was “premature, void and irregular” because the Supreme Court decision was “indubitably not final and executory, and the lifting of the status quo ante order, an accessory directive, was also not yet final.”
Lagman also sought the Supreme Court’s agreement to have the Marcos family cited in contempt for conspiring with the military and police in preparing the “premature and clandestine Marcos burial.” RAM/rga
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