SC asks gov’t to answer motions vs Marcos burial; Diokno quits

The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday ordered the government to answer in 10 days the two motions to reconsider its November 8 decision allowing the burial of the remains of the late former President Ferdinand E. Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB).

Likewise, the government – represented by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) – was directed to

answer the motion to cite in contempt Department of National Defense (DND) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) officials who allowed Marcos’ burial last November 18.

The Marcos heirs were also ordered to file their comments on the two motions, also in 10 days from receipt of the SC resolution.

The burial of Marcos at the LNMB has prompted historian Maria Serena Dioknoto step down as chairman of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP).

“Today (Nov. 29), I tendered my resignation from the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (effective 1 December 2016). I have deep gratitude and respect for my fellow workers at the Commission, whom I will miss. I am saddened at leaving them,” Diokno said in a statement, titled “History lives.”

The motions for reconsideration were filed by the so-called victims of enforced disappearances and human rights violations, represented by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman and former Bayan Muna Rep. Saturnino Ocampo, respectively. The groups claimed that the burial of the Marcos remains at the LNMB last November 18 does not render their motions moot and academic.

Lagman’s group pressed for the exhumation of the Marcos remains and the conduct of forensic examination to determine what was actually buried at the LNMB.

In a 9-5 vote with one abstention, the SC had earlier ruled that President Duterte “acted within the bounds of law and jurisprudence” and “notwithstanding the call of human rights advocates, the Court must uphold what is legal and just; and that is not to deny Marcos his rightful place at the LNMB.”

The SC decision lifted automatically the status quo ante order (SQAO) against the burial it issued last August 23.

Earlier, Solicitor General Jose Calida had affirmed the legality of the Marcos burial at the LNMB last November 18.

“As a result of the dismissal of the petitions, there was no further hindrance for the respondents (the Office of the President, Department of National Defense and Armed Forces of the Philippines) to proceed with the burial of Ferdinand E. Marcos’ remains at LNMB,” Calida said.

SC spokesman Theodore O. Te had also said there was no order from the High Court stopping the November 18 burial of Marcos at LNMB.

“There is no order prohibiting it because the status quo ante order (SQAO) has been lifted. Even if there is a 15-day period (to file motions for reconsideration), there was no order restraining the act,” Te said.

After resigning, Diokno issued a statement condemning the burial of Marcos at the LNMB and vowing to continue fighting against it.

“The burial of Ferdinand Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani is wrong; it denies our history, erases the memory of lives lost and destroyed, mocks the collective action we took to oust the dictator, and denigrates the value of our struggle for freedom,” she said.

Diokno said, “At this moment of our history, every voice counts” and she wishes to place hers on the side of the history.

She further stated that for a moment she thought she could remain at the NHCP and protect the history “from those in and out of the government who attempt to deface it” but later realized that she needs to guard the history and be one with the young Filipinos “who came out in defense of history.”

The NHCP, during under Diokno’s watch, had released a study disputing the late dictator’s supposed record as a soldier during the World War II.

“Tomorrow, I will join the popular assertion of our history and look forward to more in as many public venues as possible,” Diokno said.

“Never again will we allow any remnant of the authoritarian past to take hold of our country,” she added.

Diokno is the daughter of Filipino nationalist and the late senator Jose “Ka Pepe” Diokno, who opposed the Marcos dictatorship.