Bar examinees urged to mourn SC’s Marcos burial ruling

MANILA, Philippines – The National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) has called on Bar examinees to wear black on Sunday as a sign of mourning following the Supreme Court (SC) decision allowing former dictator Ferdinand Marcos to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City.

NUPL president Edre Olalia, who represented the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan in one of the petitions against the hero’s burial for Marcos filed before the SC, criticized the majority decision.

“A scumbag can be treated like a hero and we can choose to look the other way, or be blind and deaf, yet appear majestic and erudite,” Olalia said.

“This is what you get when the law is abstracted from reality, from truth, from history and from justice. Such contempt. Good luck to the idealistic Bar examinees. Certainly not a very good time to be proud to be a lawyer. Or a justice,” he added.

Olalia noted that Marcos himself was a lawyer who made the SC less than supreme during his regime.

“Who said the majority is always right? The majority can be so damn wrong. And insensitive,” he added.

Former Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chair Loretta Ann Rosales, who also filed a similar petition, said the SC has plummeted to its lowest level following the decision.

“By burying Marcos in Libingan ng mga Bayani, you make Marcos a hero and you erase his sins against the people,” she said. “I cry for our nation, but we shall not stop exposing the bankruptcy of such a decision.”

In a statement, the CHR said that while it recognizes the decision, “the pursuit of justice, human rights and the rule of law continues.”

“The commission believes that the Filipino people shall remain steadfast in asserting all their fundamental rights and they will demand that freedom, rule of law and democracy must be protected and guaranteed at all times,” it said.

“These constitutional values will constitute the same bonds that keep us together as a people and as a nation, as we press on in pursuing the ideals of the People Power revolution that restored our democracy, the very fabric that shall keep society whole,” added CHR.

Bishops hit SC ruling

The head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) yesterday added his voice to mounting criticisms of the SC decision.

CBCP president and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said the ruling is “painful and puzzling,” especially to victims of human rights abuses during the martial law era.

“I am very sad. The burial is an insult to the EDSA People Power spirit. It mocks our fight to restore democracy,” stressed the prelate, a protegé of the late Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin who was a key figure in the historic revolution that toppled Marcos from power in 1986.

“I am puzzled and hurt and in great grief. It calls for greater courage to make the full truth of the dictatorship known,” Villegas further lamented.

“It mocks our fight to restore democracy,” he added.

He said burying Macros in the Libingan will not bring peace and unity to the country.

Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes also expressed disappointment over the SC decision. 

He believes that the SC decision won’t help the people, especially those who suffered during martial law, to move on.

The Catholic Church played a crucial role during the EDSA People Power revolution. Cardinal Sin called on the faithful via Church-run Radio Veritas to gather along EDSA and shield the military troops that withdrew support from Marcos.

Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles and Cubao Bishop Honesto Ongtioco both believed that the decision of the court, being the final arbiter on legal issues, should just be accepted.

“What is important is for him (Marcos) to be buried. Hero or not. We should respect the dead,” Arguelles said.

“The highest court has made a decision. Let us respect those who form this court,” Ongtioco added.

Balanga Bishop Ruperto Santos, for his part, asked the Filipino faithful to pray that the decision won’t result in more division in the country.

Meanwhile, a group of petitioners in the SC case led by Joanne Lim of militant group Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan and Zaira Baniaga, chair of Kaisa UP, vowed to bring back to the streets their cry for justice against the crimes of Marcos during martial law.

“Infuriating that Marcos is allowed burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Nothing like downplaying our history where much blood of real heroes was shed and pushing their names further down the margins and a dictator’s name put on a pedestal,” Lim stressed. 

“Even if the SC as an institution has sided with the historical deviationists, the name Marcos will forever be side-by-side with the names of Hitler, Duvalier, Stalin, Pol Pot and Milosevic,” Baniaga added.

Several mass actions against the decision were staged on Tuesday night, with hundreds of protesters gathering at the University of the Philippines and the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU).

In a memo released yesterday, ADMU president Jett Villarin said SC hid behind the letter of the law and took a “myopic view that the issue is one of mere legality and politics.”