Marcos buried at heroes’ cemetery
ANGRY: Opponents denounce secret ceremony, organise protests
EX-DICTATOR Ferdinand Marcos was buried in a secretive ceremony at the national heroes’ cemetery yesterday, triggering protests as opponents denounced what they said was the whitewashing of his brutal and corrupt rule.
The burial at the “Cemetery of Heroes” was another stunning development in the remarkable political comeback of the Marcos family, a phenomenon given fresh energy by the clan's strong alliance with President Rodrigo Duterte.
The Supreme Court last week endorsed a decision by Duterte to lay the dictator to rest at the heroes' cemetery, three decades after millions of people took to streets in the famous “People Power” revolution that ended Marcos’s reign.
The Marcos family and government moved quickly after the verdict, secretly flying the embalmed body to the cemetery yesterday and interring him despite appeals still pending with the Supreme Court.
“Like a thief in the night, the Marcos family deliberately hid the information of burying former president Marcos today from the Filipino people,” said Vice-President Leni Robredo, who was elected separately from Duterte.
“This is nothing new to the Marcoses — they who had hidden wealth, hidden human rights abuses, and now, a hidden burial — with complete disregard for the law.”
His wheelchair-bound wife, Imelda, 87, and their children and grandchildren followed a horse-drawn carriage with military escort that bore his Philippine flag-draped casket.
The military honoured Marcos at the ceremony with a 21-gun salute as soldiers in parade dress and ceremonial rifles stood to attention. Two thousand riot police and soldiers guarded the perimeter of the cemetery during the ceremony.
Marcos opponents taken by surprise by the burial quickly organised a series of rallies across the capital yesterday afternoon that attracted thousands of people.
In one of the biggest at the University of the Philippines, protesters banged on drums and chanted “Marcos thief”, “Marcos dictator” and “exhume, exhume”.
Organisers said various rallies would merge at a roadside monument commemorating the “People Power” revolution.