DAVAO CITY—The remains of former President Ferdinand Marcos can be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in September, President-elect Rodrigo Duterte assured outgoing Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. after a four-hour meeting here that ended after midnight Saturday.
“The discussion was very informal but we’re eyeing [to make it happen] on September. We agreed that it will happen this year,” Marcos told reporters here after meeting with Duterte for the first time after the campaign.
Marcos said the burial would finally bring “closure” to political division that has lasted for decades.
“It will bring closure not only to my family but the country somehow,” Marcos said. “This continuing partisan exchange that has been going on for decades will finally be put to rest.”
Marcos echoed the reasons given by Duterte when he announced that he will allow the burial of the deceased Marcos at the Libingan simply because he was a former president and a soldier who fought for the country in World War II.
“I will allow the burial of President Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Not because he is a hero, if people don’t like that term, but because he was a Filipino soldier,” Duterte said.
“The issue about Marcos’s burial at the Libingan has created division amongst our people. Almost all Ilocanos have bad feelings about that. If you don’t want to call him a hero, then just think of him as a soldier,” he added.
Since his death, the Marcos family has pushed for a hero’s burial for him, citing his accomplishments as a former soldier and president. Marcos’ body is still in a glass coffin in a mausoleum in his hometown in Ilocos Norte.
Asked about Duterte’s fulfillment of the campaign promise he made in February while he was campaigning in Ilocos Norte, Marcos said he’s thankful for Duterte’s decision.
“I’m thankful that he allowed my father to be laid into rest at the Libingan ng mga Bayani,” the younger Marcos said.
Marcos flew to Davao City on Saturday to meet with Duterte and their loyal supporters who called themselves “Aldub,” or Alyansang Duterte-Bongbong, which also mounted its own separate campaign for the May 9 elections.
Duterte, on the other hand, admitted that he has a high regard for the the former president, whom he called a “great president” and a “hero.”
