Protests after Marcos buried in heroes’ cemetery
Print Edition
FORMER Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos was buried with military honors at a heroes’ cemetery in Manila yesterday, almost 30 years after his death in Hawaii.
Many in the Philippines were angered by the way Marcos’ family had kept the timing of the burial secret, including Vice President Leni Robredo who likened the ceremony to “a thief in the night.”
“This is nothing new to the Marcoses — they who had hidden wealth, hidden human rights abuses and now hidden a burial — with complete disrespect for the rule of law,” Robredo, who belongs to an anti-Marcos political party, said in a statement.
President Rodrigo Duterte gave orders in August that the interment could go ahead, fulfilling an election campaign promise. But it only took place after a Supreme Court ruling last week that dismissed objections from human rights groups.
Marcos’ eldest daughter, Imee Marcos, the governor of Ilocos Norte province, thanked Duterte for allowing her father, a former soldier and guerrilla leader during World War II, to be laid to rest with soldiers.
“At last, my beloved father’s last will to be buried with fellow soldiers was fulfilled today,” she said. She also asked people to understand the family’s decision to keep the ceremony “simple, private and solemn.”
Dozens of protesters rallied around Manila, some burning pictures of the late ruler. Past governments had blocked the burial, because they were either led by enemies of Marcos or bowed to public opinion, and the body had lain in refrigerated mausoleum in Marcos’ hometown of Paoay since its return to the Philippines in the early 1990s.
Marcos imposed martial law in 1972, before the end of his second term as president and ruled by decrees for 20 years, during which time he, his family and cronies amassed an estimated US$10 billion in ill-gotten wealth, a national commission found. Tens of thousands of suspected rebels and political foes were also killed.
He was ousted in a people’s power revolt in 1986 and died in exile in Hawaii three years later. The Marcos family returned in the 1990s and became powerful politicians representing his home province of Ilocos Norte.
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