Philippines dictator buried at heroes cemetery amid protests
MANILA, PHILIPPINES >> Long-dead former Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos was buried Friday at the country’s Heroes’ Cemetery in a secrecy-shrouded ceremony, a move approved by President Rodrigo Duterte that infuriated supporters of the “people power” revolt that ousted Marcos three decades ago.
Marcos’s daughter, Imee, expressed relief after her father’s interment at the heavily guarded cemetery in metropolitan Manila, which she said fulfilled his last wish. Enraged pro-democracy activists, however, stressed the decades-long debate over the ex-president’s final resting place was far from over and protested across the metropolis.
Bonifacio Ilagan, a left-wing activist who was detained and tortured during Marcos’s rule, said the dictator was buried “like a thief in the night” in a stealthy fashion similar to when he suddenly placed the country under martial rule.
Buried: Protesters chant slogans as the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos is finally buried at the Heroes’ Cemetery in suburban Taguig city, east of Manila, the Philippines on Friday. Marcos was buried in a secrecy-shrouded ceremony. See story at right.