SC upholds Marcos burial at Libingan
The Supreme Court (SC) declared final on Tuesday its Nov. 8, 2016 decision that allowed the burial of the remains of the late former President Ferdinand E. Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB) in Taguig City.
During its full court session, the SC denied all the motions to reconsider the decision, including the plea for the exhumation of Marcos’ remains at the LNMB.
A copy of the SC’s resolution that denied the mo-
tions was not immediately available.
In its November 8 decision, the SC ruled that President Duterte “committed no grave abuse of discretion in ordering that the remains of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos be buried in the LNMB because this was done in the exercise of his mandate under Article VII, Section 17 of the 1987 Constitution to ensure the faithful execution of all laws and there is no law that prohibits the burial of the Marcos remains at the LNMB.”
With the ruling, the SC dismissed the seven consolidated petitions and lifted the status quo ante order (SQAO) it issued on Aug. 23, 2016. The decision was written by Justice Diosdado M. Peralta.
Ten days after the issuance of the decision, the Marcos family transferred the remains of the late President to the LNMB considering that the SQAO had been lifted and there was no restraining order issued as a result of the filing of the motions for reconsideration.
SC Spokesman Theodore O. Te at that time said “even if there is a 15-day period (to file motions for reconsideration from receipt of the copy of the decision), there was no order restraining the act,” the transfer of the remains from Marcos’s hometown in Ilocos Norte to the LNMB in Taguig City.
The seven petitions against the Marcos burial at the LNMB were filed by the groups of Saturnino Ocampo, Rep. Edcel Lagman, Loreta Ann Rosales, Heherson Alvarez, Zaira Patrician Baniaga and Algamar Latiph, and Sen. Leila de Lima.
Almost all the petitions claimed that the LNMB burial of Marcos is “illegal and contrary to law, public policy, morals and justice” as it would violate Republic Act (RA) No. 289 and RA 10368, the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act.
Representing the government, Solicitor General Jose C. Calida said that burying former President Marcos at the LNMB “is not to honor him as a hero, even if by military standards he is, but to accord him the simple mortuary befitting a former President, commander-in-chief, and soldier.”
During the oral arguments, the Marcos heirs said the interment of the late former President’s remains at the LNMB does not violate any law.
They pointed out that President Duterte merely applied the law since Marcos was a former President and a soldier.
It was Lagman’s group that moved for the exhumation of Marcos’ remains at the LNMB.
In his motion, Lagman said that the digging up of Marcos’ remains is justified as it “will effectively censure and discipline the public respondents and the Marcoses for their contumacious disrespect against the Honorable Supreme Court and its processes, even as the premature and surreptitious burial revealed in bold relief the despicable chicanery of the Marcoses which is an affront against the Filipino nation and the Honorable Supreme Court itself.”