A GROUP has asked the Supreme Court to cite the heirs of strongman Ferdinand Marcos and the Duterte administration in contempt for proceeding with his burial at the heroes’ cemetery on Friday.
The group, led by former Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Saturnino Ocampo, filed the motion seeking to cite the Marcoses, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Department of National Defense in contempt for proceeding with the burial when the high court decision allowing it had not yet attained finality.
In a separate petition, another group of Martial Law victims also urged the high court to order the exhumation of Marcos’ remains.
‘‘Marcos Sr.’s burial was made deceitfully and dishonestly without any moral compunction,” the petitioners said.
But the Office of the Solicitor General defended Marcos’ burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani even if the Supreme Court decision had not yet attained finality.
“The petition for contempt has no legal basis because there was no more legal obstacle for the burial when the Supreme Court dismissed the petitions and lifted the status quo ante order in its decision last Nov. 8,” Solicitor General Jose Calida said.
National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon said the government does not regard the anti-Marcos protests as a threat to national security.
“I would rather look at it as a democratic expression of sentiments and beliefs,” he told reporters in Lima.
Reps. Fredenil Castro, Eric Singson and Emmeline Aglipay-Villar said they believed the Marcoses and the officials of the Duterte administration did not violate any laws when Marcos was buried.
But former President Fidel V. Ramos said he felt bad about the burial that he described as an insult to soldiers.
“I felt very bad especially for the veterans,” he said.
“It was an insult, a trivialization of the role, the sacrifices of our Armed Forces and Coast Guard retired and active.”
Ocampo and his group appealed to the high court to order the detention of the Marcos heirs for their alleged offense.
‘‘The hasty, shady and tricky burial of the dictator Marcos Sr… degrades the honorable court and is contemptuous in itself,’’ their petition said.
They said the police and the military should likewise be held liable for contempt of court.
‘‘Public respondents were well aware of the judicial process and yet trifled with the same in shameless and utter bad faith when they obviously connived with the Marcos family in planning the lightning burial….” the petitioners said.