SC sets hearing on burial of Marcos

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES

The Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments on Aug. 24 to hear all issues surrounding the plan of the Duterte administration to bury the remains of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos at Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City.

The high court also directed the Department of National Defense and Armed Forces of the Philippines to explain in five days the reasons for a hero’s burial for Marcos.

“The court directed respondents to comment on the petition and the application for a temporary restraining order (TRO) within a nonextendible period of five days from today, with the comments to be received by the court not later than 10 a.m. on Monday,

Aug. 22,” Supreme Court spokesperson Theodore Te said at a briefing on Tuesday.

Te said the Supreme Court en banc would hear oral arguments on Aug. 24 at 9 a.m. in its session hall in Manila.

The remains of Marcos, who died in exile in Hawaii in 1989 three years after his ouster, are in a refrigerated crypt in the family mausoleum in Batac, Ilocos Norte province.

Martial law victims—led by former Bayan Muna Representatives Satur Ocampo and Neri Colmenares, urban poor leader Trinidad Herrera Repuno, activist Carol Araullo and Samahan ng Ex-detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto—filed on Monday a petition for certiorari and asked the high court to issue an injunction on the hero’s burial for Marcos.

The petitioners argued that a hero’s burial for Marcos was contrary to Republic Act

No. 10368, or the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013, that recognized the human rights violations during the Marcos regime.

According to the group, the plan was contrary to AFP Regulations G 161-373, which states that “those who have been dishonorably discharged from service, or personnel convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude, do not qualify for interment.’’

Anathema

A hero’s burial for Marcos will also run counter to Republic Act No. 289, which provides that the purpose of the construction of Libingan is “to perpetuate the memory of all Presidents of the Philippines, national heroes and patriots for the inspiration and emulation of this generation and of generations still unborn,” the petitioners said.

“It can be validly raised that the intent and spirit of this regulation is anathema or is mocked by the planned interment of the late dictator even if technically and strictly speaking he has not been ‘dishonorably discharged from service,’ or ‘convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude,’” they added.

Opposition members in the House of Representatives and families of desaparecidos (involuntary disappeared during martial law) led by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman also filed a petition to stop the hero’s burial for

Marcos.

They want a TRO issued before Marcos’ burial scheduled for Sept. 18.

Lagman said the burial would not lead to closure as the “wounds inflicted during the dark days of martial law will bleed anew.’’

“The worst victims of Marcos’ atrocities during martial law are the desaparecidos because not even makeshift crosses mark their unknown graves,” he said.

Joining Lagman in the petition were Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat, Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice, Akbayan Rep. Tomasito Villarin, Capiz Rep. Emmanuel A. Billones and Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND) led by cochair Nilda Sevilla. With a report from Gil Cabacungan