PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III on Monday led the transfer and reinterment of the remains of the late President Elpidio Quirino, the sixth president of the republic, at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City, one day after the Palace warned against bestowing the same honor on the late President Ferdinand Marcos.
Quirino was president from April 17, 1948 to Dec. 30, 1953, when the country was rebuilding itself after World War II. He died of a heart attack at his residence in Novaliches on Feb. 29, 1956.
Quirino is the third president to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, after former Presidents Carlos Garcia and Diosdado-Macapagal.
During the ceremony, Aquino joined the funeral march to the gravesite together with the Quirino family, former President Fidel Ramos, some members of the diplomatic corps, and military service commanders.
Judy Araneta-Roxas, mother of Liberal Party standard bearer Manuel Roxas II, also attended the reinterment.
Quirino took his oath as president when former President Manuel Roxas died of a heart attack in 1948. Quirino was Roxas’ vice president.
Quirino was given a 21-gun salute before the pallbearers turned over the folded flag to Aquino, who handed it to Eduardo Quirino, the late president’s grandson.
Eduardo said the transfer of his grandfather’s remains from the South Cemetery in Makati was “a year in the making,” starting with a request to the National Historical Commission of the Philippines.
“Because all the Philippine presidents, when they die, …belong to the country,” said Eduardo, who was six when his grandfather died.
The Quirino family, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, government officials, police, military and representatives of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines joined the send-off ceremony for his remains at the Manila South Cemetery.
Abakada party-list Rep. Jonathan Dela Cruz, campaign manager of vice presidential candidate Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., said Monday former President Ferdinand Marcos should also be allowed to be buried in the same cemetery.
The Palace warned Sunday that if the next elected president will allow former President Marcos to be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani, he or she will have to answer to the people.
“President Aquino’s decision [to disallow Marcos’ burial] is based on his firm belief and conviction on the primacy of justice. The late President Marcos never apologized for the violence and oppression that characterized martial law and the dictatorship,” said Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr., in a text message.
“If the next President does not believe in the guiding principles upon which President Aquino decided not to allow the transfer of former President’s remains to Libingan ng mga Bayani, then he or she will have to justify that decision to the people,” Coloma said.
In 1993, President Fidel Ramos allowed the body of Marcos to be brought home but did not grant the former President’s wish to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
The Marcos family decided to keep his body preserved in a crypt in his hometown of Batac, waiting for a friendlier administration that would allow the fulfillment of his wish.
Due to strong opposition, the succeeding administrations of Presidents Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo did not allow Marcos to be buried in the Heroes’ Cemetery.
In 2011, the late Sorsogon Rep. Salvador Escudero, the father of vice presidential candidate Senator Francis Escudero, led 193 congressmen in signing a resolution to allow the burial of Marcos at Libingan ng mga Bayani.
This was turned down by President Benigno Aquino III, who directed Vice President Jejomar Binay to study the issue and submit a recommendation.
Binay, who is running for President in May, recommended at the time that Marcos be buried with military honors in Batac. The Marcoses refused, insisting on fulfilling the late President Marcos’s wish.
