MALACAÑANG insisted Thursday that President Rodrigo Duterte glossed over nothing when he decided to proceed with the burial of former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani or Heroes’ Cemetery.
“You’re talking of a historical perspective, but we’re doing something based on a presidential decision that is based on law,” Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella said.
He made the statement when asked if giving the strongman a hero’s burial was a way of diluting the essence of the law recognizing the abuses committed against the victims of Martial law.
Human rights groups and the victims of Martial Law have appealed to Duterte to “reconsider his decision” to confer national honors on Marcos, “a dictator, a murderer and a plunderer.”
“The move, if pursued, [would be] a mockery of and an insult to the Filipinos’ sacrifices and struggle for freedom and democracy,” said Cristina Palabay, secretary-general of rights group Karapatan.
“It [would be] a thickheaded whitewash of the crimes that Marcos committed against the people.”
But Abella said burying the late dictator at the Libingan ng mga Bayani would not dilute the essence of Republic Act 10368, or the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013, which is seen as the official recognition by the government of the atrocities that the Martial Law regime committed against its own people and for which it will grant reparation.
Amid the continuing opposition from critics and even his closest allies, Duterte has maintained he will allow Marcos’ burial, a promise he made during the presidential campaign. Marcos’ body has been preserved for the longest time in a refrigerated crypt in Ilocos Norte.
