THE Supreme Court has been asked to temporarily suspend the burial of strongman Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani pending appeal of its decision last Tuesday allowing the interment.
One of the petitioners Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman pleaded the SC to consider the re-issuance of its status quo ante order enjoining the government from implementing President Rodrigo Duterte’s order for the Marcos burial to give way to the resolution of the appeal they intend to file.
As alternative, Lagman appealed to the SC to instead advise the respondents Armed Forces of the Philippines or Department of National Defense not to implement the order yet until the SC ruling becomes final.
The petitioner made the plea “considering that the subject decision is not yet final and to foreclose the projected motions for reconsideration from being rendered moot by the precipitate burial of the late President Ferdinand Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani.”
The lawyer stressed they have not received copy of the decision yet for filing of appeal while the Marcos family is already planning to proceed with the burial.
The Marcos family has reportedly not set a specific date yet for the burial after getting the go-signal from the SC.
The high court has also not yet released the decision as of yesterday afternoon and its spokesman Theodore Te said he is not aware if the ruling approved last Tuesday by a 9-5 vote would be immediately executory.
In its decision last Tuesday, the high court said the order of Duterte for the Marcos burial is well within his presidential power provided under Article VII, section 17 of the Constitution.
The decision penned by Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta held that Marcos possessed the qualifications to be interred at the Libingan as a “former president and commander-in-chief, a legislator, a secretary of national defense, a military personnel, a veteran and a Medal of Valor awardee.”
The SC ruled that there is no law prohibiting Marcos’ burial at LNMB.
It also rejected the claim of petitioners that Duterte’s decision was motivated by his debt of gratitude and payback to the Marcoses for supporting his presidential candidacy in the elections last May, saying they failed to establish factual basis for this.
