Filipinos file petition against ex-president’s burial

Filipinos file petition against ex-president’s burial

Former president Marcos - who ruled with iron fist for 20 years, decade of it under martial law - fled Philippines in 1986

By Roy Ramos and Hader Glang

ZAMBOANGA CITY, the Philippines (AA) – Victims of rights abuses under the rule of the Philippines’ former strongman Ferdinand Marcos Sr. have filed a petition with the Supreme Court against his burial at the country's hero cemetery.

“The interment of the remains of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani [cemetery] is contrary to public policy, as he is not entitled to any hero’s burial notwithstanding the fact of his presidency, which he overly abused, and his military record, which remains dubious up to present,” said the 30-page document filed Monday.

On Sunday, some 1,000 protesters braved heavy rains to urge President Rodrigo Duterte to retract his order according a hero's burial for the former president, who ruled the Philippines with an iron fist for 20 years -- around a decade of it under martial law.

Earlier this month, Duterte gave the go-ahead for the burial of Marcos at the cemetery, possibly next month, explaining that he is entitled to a plot given that he is a former soldier and president.

Marcos was forced to flee the country by a peaceful "people power" revolt in 1986. He died in Sept. 28, 1989 while in exile in Honolulu, Hawaii, and his preserved remains have been kept in the family's museum and mausoleum in the northern province of Ilocos since his family’s return.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported Monday that the petition was filed by victims of human rights violations through the National Union of People’s Lawyers, and asked the court to issue a temporary restraining order against the implementation of the burial order.

It described the order as a grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction.

The petition underlined that it also ran counter to Republic Act 10368, signed in 2013, which orders the reparation and recognition of the sacrifices of human rights victims during the Marcos regime.

“For how can such honesty and integrity be promoted and defended when a dishonest and disgraced public official, such as Ferdinand E. Marcos, after his removal from power, can snatch respect and thereby re-write not only history but his culpability via the back door of declaring and celebrating him a hero?” the petition said.

“In fact, the reverse is true and Marcos is not qualified under any law or guideline. While Marcos was a former president of the Philippines and a soldier who allegedly valiantly fought during World War II, a claim that is more a concocted self-serving and grandiose fable than a fact the interment of his remains at the Libingan ng mga Bayani is contrary to law,” it added.

The National Historical Commission of the Philippines has asked Duterte not to allow the burial, saying the medals his family claimed he received for exploits in World War II do not belong to him.

Duterte has said he will allow Marcos opponents to protest against the burial.

Petitioners noted that Section 27 of Article II (Declaration of Principles and State Policies State Policies) provides that “State shall maintain honesty and integrity in the public service and take positive and effective measures against graft and corruption.”

On the other hand, Section 1 of Article XI (Accountability of Public Officers) states “Public office is a public trust. 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.”

“The public respondent’s decision to re-furbish the tattered image of Ferdinand E. Marcos also goes against the constitutional precept that corruption, just like the ill-gotten wealth that it spawns, is never forgotten and hence the action against its rich proceeds never prescribes,” it added.

The petitioners said the country’s experience under the Marcos dictatorship “should not be emulated and cannot serve as an inspiration to this generation and to the next generation of Filipinos.”

They recalled President Marcos brutal dictatorial rule in which he ordered the arrest of more than 50,000 people during the first three years of Martial Law.

Thousands more were tortured, summarily executed and disappeared also during the Martial Law.

Moreover petitioners said the order of the Marcos burial is violation of Republic At 10368 or the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013 which

recognizes under the law the human rights violations committed during the Marcos regime.

“The interment of the remains of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani is contrary to public policy, as he is not entitled to any hero’s burial notwithstanding the fact of his presidency, which he overly abused, and his military record, which remains dubious up to present,” petitioners said.

Petitioners also cited the study conducted by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) belying the claim of Marcos of being a World War II hero and bemedalled soldier.

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