Poe: Marcos burial must be ‘in accordance with law’

Presidential candidate Sen. Grace Poe-Llamanzares during the Presidential Debates 2016 held in Capitol University in Cagayan de Oro City .
INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON

PRESIDENTIAL candidate Sen. Grace Poe made it clear on Saturday that the decision whether or not to give former President Ferdinand Marcos a hero’s burial must be “in accordance with the law.”

“The decision should be harmonized with the intentions of Republic Act No. 10368 on the reparation and recognition of human rights violations during the Marcos regime,” Poe said in a statement.

“The law makes it the policy of the state, and I quote, ‘to recognize the heroism and sacrifices of all Filipinos who were victims of summary execution, torture, enforced or involuntary disappearance and other gross human rights violations committed during the regime of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos covering the period from Sept. 21, 1972, to Feb. 25, 1986, and restore the victims’ honor and dignity,’” she said.

Poe issued the statement after the Inquirer reported that she was open to allowing Marcos’ burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

The senator denied the report.

“I have been consistent about this from the very beginning. Former President Ferdinand Marcos deserves to be accorded proper burial. As to where, I would like to clarify that I did not state in an earlier interview that I am open to allowing the burial, and I quote the report, “wherever that may be,” and which would naturally include the Libingan ng mga Bayani,” said Poe.

“To state the fact, my exact quote was: ‘Dapat talagang malagay na sa maayos ang paglilibing kay President Marcos, kung ano pa man ‘yan.’ (President Marcos should be properly buried, whatever that is.)”

But Poe said the matter of the burial of the late strongman “is not for the incumbent President alone to decide on.”

The burial issue was raised by a reporter during a press conference in Tacloban City on Friday.

In that presscon, Poe also said that the Marcos family should make a specific request to allow the former president to be buried at the Libingan.