Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos is hoping that the Supreme Court will resolve the appeal to reverse its Nov. 8, 2016, ruling allowing the burial of her father, former President Ferdinand Marcos before his 100th birth anniversary in September.
“We have been waiting for almost a year now,” Marcos said Wednesday at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum.
Her father was buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB) after the Supreme Court dismissed the petition to nullify President Rodrigo Duterte’s order allowing it.
Aside from the reversal of the decision, petitioners are also urging the high court to cite the military and the Marcos family in contempt for the “sneaky” burial of the late dictator at the LNMB.
Former Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo, through the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), maintained that Duterte’s action violated Article II, Section 27 of the 1987 Constitution which requires the State to take positive and effective measure against graft and corruption.
As proof, NUPL said the Supreme Court itself, on several instances forfeited $638-million in favor of the government.
“Thus, allowing Marcos the Dictator who has already been judged by the Filipino people in 1986 and even the Supreme Court as a plunderer in many cases to be interred at the LNMB on the mere reason that he, like the others, is listed as qualified in AFP Regulation G 161-375, disregards and violates not only the public purpose standard under Proclamation 86 (S 1954) but is a direct contravention and a violation of said provision of the Constitution,” the motion for reconsideration stated.
They reminded the high court that respect for human rights and human dignity is a fundamental principle under the 1987 Constitution.
Albay Representative Edcel Lagman, in a separate motion for reconsideration said the sneaky Marcos burial at the LNMB last November 18 was a “gross distortion, a malevolent revision and a wanton derogation of Philippine history.”
Contrary to the court’s ruling and President Duterte’s claim, Lagman said the late President’s burial at the LNMB would not lead to closure and national healing.
Governor Marcos said she recognized and respected the opposition but “we also have the right to talk.”
“I am hoping that before his 100th birthday the Supreme Court will finally resolve the matter. Remember we will only come to bury Ceasar, not to praise him,” she said. CBB