Court rules Marcos can be given hero’s burial
Print Edition
EX-PHILIPPINE dictator Ferdinand Marcos can be given a hero’s burial, the Supreme Court said yesterday in a hugely controversial ruling which critics said would whitewash his crimes and divide the nation.
The justices overwhelmingly endorsed President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to allow the burial at the “Cemetery of Heroes” in Manila, three decades after a famous “People Power” revolt forced Marcos into US exile.
“There is no law that prohibits the burial,” court spokesman Theodore Te said as he read a summary of the judgement.
Hundreds of Marcos supporters outside the Supreme Court cheered. But opponents who had petitioned the court to reject the plan staged a rally nearby and voiced deep anger.
“It’s really sad because the decision makes liars out of human rights victims,” said Neri Colmenares, who as a student leader was tortured by Marcos’ security forces during martial law.
Marcos ruled the Philippines for two decades until key military figures turned on him and millions took to the streets in the “People Power” uprising.
Marcos, his infamously flamboyant wife Imelda, and their cronies plundered up to US$10 billion from state coffers during his rule, according to government investigators and historians.
He also oversaw widespread human rights abuses to maintain his control of the country and enable his plundering, with thousands of people killed and tortured, previous Philippine governments said.
The Philippines’ foreign debt went from US$2.67 billion in 1972, when Marcos declared martial law, to US$28.2 billion in 1986, according to the World Bank. After Marcos died in Hawaii in 1989, his family began a successful political comeback and tried repeatedly to have him buried at the heroes’ cemetery, where other presidents and celebrated military figures are interred.
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