Marcos burial uproar
Protesters take legal action over late dictator’s burial
Legal action launched to exhume body of former Philippine dictator.
MANILA: Campaigners have launched legal action to exhume the body of former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, just three days after his burial in a national heroes’ cemetery triggered street protests.
He was finally laid to rest on Friday in a secretive ceremony at the “Cemetery of Heroes” with military honours almost three decades after his death, angering critics who accuse Marcos of massive corruption and human rights abuses.
Relatives of victims of his rule asked the Supreme Court yesterday to dig up his remains, claiming they had not been given enough time to appeal a ruling allowing his burial in the cemetery.
“How can a plunderer and despot and violator of human rights be given that honour of being buried in the memorial of good men?” said Congressman Edcel Lagman, brother of an abducted anti-Marcos dissident who was never seen again.
Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court endorsed a decision by President Rodrigo Duterte to bury the dictator at the cemetery.
The Marcos family and government moved quickly after the verdict, secretly flying the embalmed body from the northern Philippines to the cemetery in Manila on Friday.
But Lagman, an opposition member of the House of Representatives, filed a “motion for exhumation” yesterday arguing that the court ruling was not final as opponents had not been given 15 days to appeal.
“If you exhume that body, you disinter Marcos, then the motions for reconsideration” can be heard by the court, he told ABS-CBN television.
Another group representing victims of his martial law yesterday asked the Supreme Court to cite the Marcos family and the military for contempt for organising the burial.
The former leader, his wife Imelda and their cronies plundered up to US$10bil (RM44bil) from state coffers and plunged the Philippines into crippling debt during his rule, according to government investigators and historians. — AFP