Supreme Court dismisses objections to  Marcos burial at Libingan

August 8, 2017

The Supreme Court has affirmed with  finality its decision in November 2016  allowing the burial of strongman Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

In its en banc session Tuesday, the SC  sustained  President Rodrigo Duterte's order to allow Marcos' interment at the cemetery for former presidents and fallen soldiers last August.

Voting 10-5, the high court dismissed appeals by the groups of former Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, which sought exhumation of Marcos’ remains, for lack of merit.

The SC said there was no grave abuse of discretion in Duterte's order allowing Marcos' interment.

The High Tribunal also dismissed the plea of Ocampo's group asking the SC to cite Marcos heirs, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Department of National Defense (DND) for contempt for proceeding with the burial last November as the SC ruling allowing it has not become final.

The 10 justices  who voted to dismiss the motions for reconsideration are  Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leonardo- De Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Mariano Del Castillo, Jose Mendoza, Estela Perlas - Bernabe, Samuel Martires, Noel Tijam and Andres Reyes Jr.

Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justices Marvic Leonen, Francis Jardeleza and Benjamin Caguioa dissented.

The SC ruled Marcos was qualified  to be buried  at the Libingan as a "former president and commander-in-chief, a legislator, a secretary of national defense, a military personnel, a veteran and a Medal of Valor awardee."

It said the late strongman could not be disqualified from such privilege because of his ouster during the 1986 People Power Revolution, explaining disqualification for dishonorable separation only applies to military personnel prosecuted before a court martial. Marcos died in Hawaii in 1989

The SC rejected the argument of petitioners that Marcos was not eligible for burial because when the totality of Marcos as a man is weighed in the balance, whatever achievements he has done for the country are completely nullified by his sins against the nation.

The high court also pointed out that Duterte is not bound by the 1992 agreement between the Marcos family and former President Fidel Ramos which provides that the Marcos remains will be interred in Batac, Ilocos Norte.

The Supreme Court  pointed out it is not rewriting  history as the Office of the Solicitor General  had clarified in the oral arguments that  interment at the cemetery would not make Marcos a hero. DMS