FORMER President Benigno Aquino III failed to act when his vice president recommended that the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos be buried in Batac, Ilocos Norte, a proposal that had the approval of the Marcos family.
The camp of former Vice President Jejomar Binay made this disclosure as various groups continued to protest the Duterte adminsitration’s plan to allow Marcos’ burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
“The Aquino administration missed an opportunity to lay the Marcos burial issue to rest when it did not act on former vice president Binay’s recommendation made as early as 2011 to allow the burial of Marcos in Batac, Ilocos Norte,” said Binay’s spokesman Joey Salgado.”©
“The former vice president noted that the burial of Marcos in Batac had the approval of the Marcos family. However, Aquino did not act on the recommendation. That’s why the nation is once again torn by debates over a contentious issue that could have been buried a long time ago,” Salgado added.
Aquino had tasked Binay in April 2011 to study the issue of burying the Marcos remains at Libingan ng mga Bayani, Salgado said.”©”©
He said the Office of the Vice President then solicited the comments of various political parties, sectors, organizations and the general public on the issue.
“The office also held consultations with the Marcos family on the issue. The Office of the Vice President received over 3,000 responses through text, e-mail, and letters. In June 2011, vice president Binay submitted to Aquino his recommendation to allow the burial of Marcos in Batac, Ilocos Norte,” Salgado said.
Supporters of Aquino, including former Interior and Local Government secretary and losing presidential candidate Manuel Roxas II, were among those who staged a rally in Manila protesting the decision of President Rodrigo Duterte to allow the burial of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
Aquino is the son of the late Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., who was assassinated in August 1983 at the Manila International Airport upon returning from his self-imposed exile in the United States.
The Aquino family blamed Marcos for his death.
Former President Fidel Ramos commented earlier that the only reason Marcos was not buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani was because the “wounds of the 1986 People Power Revolution were still fresh at that time.”
Ramos, one of the key players in the Edsa uprising that ousted Marcos, said among the considerations when he allowed the return of Marcos’ body to the Philippines in 1992, three years after his death in 1989, was to avoid destabilization.
“During our time 1992 to1998, you must understand that we allowed the remains of the late President Marcos to return to the Philippines under certain conditions because of the possible destabilization of the country unless there were certain safeguards adopted,” he said.
Ramos said they believed that Marcos should not be forever detained in Hawaii since it was not his homeland.
President Duterte said that the late strongman, who served the country for more than three decades, should be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, not because he is a hero but because he was a soldier.
“The issue about Marcos’ burial at the Libingan has created division amongst our people. Almost all Ilocanos have bad feelings about that,” he said. “If you don’t want to call him a hero, then just think of him as a soldier.”
Duterte said it is important to settle the matter soon because it has been simmering for a long time.
The decision was a fulfillment of the promise Duterte made in February while he was campaigning in Marcos’ home province of Ilocos Norte, where he won in the race for the presidency with more than 100,000 votes, or 39 percent of all votes cast.
He said allowing the burial for the former president at the Libingan ng mga Bayani would help unite the country.
Marcos’ only son and former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. thanked Duterte.
“Our campaign has always been towards achieving unity to move the country forward. And it is this kind of pronouncement that we hope could end the decades of divisiveness that have been imposed upon us by our leaders. We would like to thank President Duterte for this kind, rightful and healing gesture,” he said.
Ferdinand Marcos was the country’s President from 1965 to 1986. He also served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and of the Senate from 1959 to 1965, where he was also Senate President from 1963 to 1965.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ordered the Defense Department to answer a petition seeking to stop Marcos’ upcoming burial.
In an en banc session, the justices ordered Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and Armed Forces chief Gen. Ricardo Visaya to justify their orders to hold a hero’s burial for Marcos as approved by President Duterte.
The order was in response to a petition filed by a group of Martial Law victims led by former Bayan Muna party-list lawmakers Satur Ocampo and Neri Colmenares.
The Court asked the respondents to comment by Aug. 22.
The tribunal also set the case for oral arguments on Aug. 24, and required parties to attend a preliminary conference also on Monday at 2 p.m.
The high court resolved to first subject the petition to oral arguments before deciding on the prayer of petitioners for issuance of a temporary restraining order enjoining the Armed Forces from proceeding with the burial set for next month.
In their petition filed last Monday, Ocampo and company asked the Court to declare null and void the memorandum issued by Lorenzana last Aug. 7 and the directive of Visaya for the interment of Marcos.
The petitioners argued that the planned burial of the late dictator was “illegal and contrary to law, public policy, morals and justice.”
Petitioners, including members of the Samahan ng Ex-detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (Selda), alleged that allowing the burial of the former leader would violate Republic Act No. 289 or the law regulating the Libingan ng mga Bayani and Republic Act 10368 or the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act.
They asserted that the burial would also violate constitutional provision on state policies.
They cited Section 27, Article II or the Declaration of Principles and State Policies, which provides that the “state shall maintain honesty and integrity in the public service and take positive and effective measures against graft and corruption” and also Section 1, Article XI (Accountability of Public Officers), which provides that “public officers and employees must at all times be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and efficiency, act with patriotism and justice, and lead modest lives.”
As alternative, petitioners cited the 1993 agreement between then President Fidel Ramos and the Marcos family for the burial of the late strongman in Ilocos Norte.
A similar petition was filed by families of victims of enforced disappearances during the Martial Law era last Monday afternoon.