Hontiveros: Marcos unfit to be buried at Libingan
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Risa Hontiveros filed a resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that the crimes of the late President Ferdinand Marcos render him unfit for a hero's burial.
The neophyte senator stressed that the Libingan ng mga Bayani is designated for Filipino soldiers, war veterans and citizens considered as heroes and martyrs.
Former presidents may be buried at the Libingan except for those who were convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude, the senator said.
Hontiveros stressed the human rights violations committed under the late dictator's 20-year regime.
"Whereas, in the case of Hilao v. Estate of Marcos... the jury found the estate of defendant Ferdinand Marcos liable to 10,059 plaintiffs for the acts of torture, summary execution, and disappearance," Hontiveros said in her Senate resolution.
The senator cited the testimonies of victims of human rights violations during the Martial Law period. The plaintiffs went through beatings while blindfolded and underwent different types of torture.
Hontiveros argued that such conviction should disqualify the late dictator from being remembered in history as a hero.
The senator added that allowing Marcos to be buried at the Libingan will cause "further divisiveness, and will reopen old wounds, especially as the country is also in the process of providing reparations to Martial Law victims."
"Whereas, President Duterte cannot end the rule of oligarchs in the country by honoring the very man who created a crony oligarchy during Martial Law," the senator said.
The Commission on Human Rights, National Historical Commission of the Philippines, Catholic bishops, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano have also appealed to Duterte to reconsider his decision.
Vice President Leni Robredo also opposed the decision of Duterte to bury Marcos at the Libingan, stressing that it would cause divisiveness in the nation.
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