SC stays Marcos burial for 20 days

But order ends six days before planned burial

MANILA -- The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered a 20-day halt against the planned burial of the late president Ferdinand Marcos at Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB).

In an en banc session Tuesday, the high tribunal issued a 20-day Status Quo Ante Order (SQAO) that would prohibit the respondents in the case to perform the burial within that period.

The SQAO will take effect until September 12. The projected date of Marcos’ burial at the Heroes’ Cemetery, however, is on September 18, meaning that without a Court order to permanently stop the burial, the respondents can still transfer Marcos’ remains at LNMB when the SQAO expires.

SC spokesperson Atty. Theodore Te said that the Court has also consolidated all the six petitions filed against Marcos’ burial. The sixth petition according to him was filed Tuesday morning by a certain Algamar Latiph.

In its resolution, the SC also rescheduled the oral arguments from August 24 to August 31, Wednesday at 10 a.m.

It also granted the SC Public Information Office’s request to livestream the audio of the oral arguments in the case.

In a statement, Former Bayan Muna Representative Neri Colmenares, one of the petitioners, said they are happy that the SC has issued a SQAO to stop the burial of the “deposed dictator.”

According to Colmenares, the planned honorary burial for Marcos “will not only exacerbate the long festering wounds of the victims of his abuses who have yet to get justice, but is also an odious reversal of history.”

Colmanares further appealed to the high tribunal to make the SQAO permanent and deliver a message to the Marcoses “to move on and bury Marcos in Ilocos Norte.”