Former aides bat for Marcos burial at Libingan ng mga Bayani

ILOCOS SUR, Philippines – A former aide of the Marcos family and now San Juan Mayor Benjamin Sarmiento supports President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to bury the late President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

 

"Tayong mga mamamayan, magtiwala naman tayo sa magandang layunin ng ating pangulo," Sarmiento, who first worked for the Marcos family in 1965 and later became a member of the Presidential Guard Battalion, said.

 

He said that Duterte's order is meant to bring peace to the country.

 

He said he sees nothing wrong with burying Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani as a former leader and President of the Philippines.

 

“Nanungkulan naman siya bilang Presidente. Wala naming perpektong tao. Wala ring perpektong presidente. Bakit hindi papayagan?”

 

Sarmiento said that Marcos did not want the abuses committed during his presidency to happen.

 

“Ang nangyari lang, yung parang ‘command responsibility’ kasi mga tao niya ang gumawa. Kaya siya ang pinagbuntunan ng kasalanan.”

 

He reiterated that Duterte's decision to bury Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, a move opposed through five petitions at the Supreme Court, will bring peace and unity to the Philippines. He said that it should have been done long ago.

 

RELATED: Supreme Court halts Marcos' burial for 20 days

Meanwhile, 83-year-old Lilia Castro, who worked for the Marcoses for 20 years, had a long list of heartwarming tales of her close encounters with the former president and his family.

 

Castro, from Barangay Cangrunaan in Batac City, in Ilocos Norte, noted that working for the family was “a rewarding experience.”

 

When Marcos became president in 1965, Castro was an intern and taking up her master’s degree at the Philippine Women’s University in Manila. She got an offer to work for then First Lady Imelda Marcos, now Ilocos Norte representative.

 

Castro noted how President Marcos was a “kind person but he did not tolerate stupidity.”  What infuriated him the most, she said, was “when you answer ‘I don’t know’ to his questions.”

 

Castro said she looked up to Marcos “as a war hero, he was Major Ferdinand Marcos” growing up in Batac.  

 

The US Army has disputed claims of Marcos' heroism during the war, particularly during the Battle of Bessang Pass in 1945. 

 

More than that, she said, was how it was such a privilege to witness the “joyful, funny and witty” personality of the former strongman when he was Ilocos Norte assemblyman (congressman).

 

“Of course, he was different at the Palace. [We were always] formal with him but there were times—if there were parties—he was also cracking jokes,” Castro said.

 

Gaining the trust and respect of the Marcoses, Castro also became very close with their children.

 

“For one school term in 1972, I was a chaperone to Irene and Bongbong when they studied in London… This also gave me a chance to enroll in a short-term course in Psychology while in the country,” Castro said.

 

Despite the common misconceptions about President Marcos, Castro said “most people failed to see that he was such a devoted father and a husband.” She said that "he always set time for the [his] family. When he was the president, they had private moments.” 

 

“There are those who cannot move on and they stick to their bitterness and when they do, parang ikaw [sila] na rin ang nakalibing,” she said of those opposed to a hero's burial for the ousted president. -- Artemio A. Dumlao