Philippines: Marcos finally buried at Heroes Cemetery

By Hader Glang

ZAMBOANGA CITY, the Philippines (AA) - A Philippines president blamed for the murder of thousands has finally been laid to rest in the country's Heroes' Cemetery after months of legal argument and protest.

With media coverage banned from the cemetery, video taken through the gates showed former dictator Ferdinand Marcos's children and others walking behind a hearse that carried his coffin, draped in the Philippines flag.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines said in a statement that the family had requested it "be a private burial... held in confidentiality."

The midday burial has angered victims of Marcos' purges and human rights groups, who have argued that only those who serve as an inspiration and as models for emulation can be buried at the cemetery.

According to rights groups, Marcos’ dictatorship saw thousands of people murdered, tortured and jailed, and the Philippines' finances looted.

GMA News reported Friday that Marcos remains were buried in a rushed private ceremony at noon, after his body was flown from Laoag, Ilocos Norte -- the home of the family Mausoleum -- late in morning.

In a statement read at a press briefing in Peru where President Rodrigo Duterte is attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said Duterte hoped countrymen could find it in their hearts to forgive.

Duterte had said he would allow the burial as part of his campaign promises.

"Let history judge but I will do what it is legal and the Supreme Court has ruled that it is," ABS-CBN news quoted Abella as saying, referring to a majority Nov. 8 decision by the court to allow the burial.

"The SC lifted the status quo ante order and allowed the burial of the remains and the president adheres to the ruling of the high court."

Petitions to block the burial were filed soon after Duterte announced that he would allow the interment, as Marcos -- whose remains have been held in a refrigerated crypt since his family returned from exile in Hawaii in the early 1990s -- was a former president and soldier.

The Supreme Court ruled in November that Duterte had not committed "grave abuse of discretion" in ordering the interment, junking all petitions with a vote of 9-5.

It maintained that no law prohibits Marcos’ burial at the cemetery, and that Duterte had “acted within the bounds of law and jurisprudence”.

On Friday, victims of human rights abuses during the Martial Law regime condemned the news.

"Like a thief in the night, Marcos declared Martial Law in 1973. Like a thief in the night, he is being buried today. It is the Marcos style all over again," GMA News quoted Boni Ilagan, an activist who fought the Marcos dictatorship, as saying; "We condemn this latest assault on justice by the Marcos cabal."