Philippines: Group Rejects Burial Plea For Marcos
By UCA News
By D’Jay Lazaro
A human rights group today condemned a congressional proposal to allow former dictator Ferdinand Marcos to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes’ Cemetery).
“We find this grossly unacceptable and a travesty of history,” said Marie Hilao-Enriquez, head of the Alliance of Ex-detainees against Detention and Arrest.
“It makes a mockery of the horrors that the Filipino people endured during the martial law era: plunder, numerous human rights violations including summary executions, disappearances, torture, illegal arrests and detention,” she added.
Enriquez slammed a House of Representatives resolution, signed by 190 members, asking President Benigno Aquino to allow Marcos’ body to be reburied at the Libingan.
The body of the late strongman has been lying inside a refrigerated crypt in the Marcos Mausoleum in the northern Philippine province of Ilocos Norte since 1993.
Marcos died in exile in the United States in 1989.
While she welcomed the redistribution of funds from a US$10 million law settlement with Marcos crony Jose Campos, “such a victory won by the victims should not be seen as a sign that the Marcoses can just get away with [crimes] against the Filipino people,” Enriquez said.
