Group to study Marcos burial at Libingan ng mga Bayani

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino disclosed yesterday that he would assign a government official to assess whether the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, archenemy of his late father Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., could be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

“I’m thinking of inhibiting myself from deciding on the matter. I will have a government official whom I will task to study this, since that has many implications,” he told reporters at Camp Aguinaldo after he presided over a command conference.

“So, in all probability, I will let somebody who has less personal attachment decide on it and I hope to be meeting this person,” said Aquino, the only son of the martyred senator and the late President Corazon Aquino.

“Anything I say will be biased,” he stressed, implying that he will be in a no-win situation.

Marcos was ousted in a 1986 people power revolt led by the President’s late mother. Marcos died three years later in exile in Hawaii and his body was flown back in 1993 to his northern Philippine hometown of Batac, Ilocos Norte where it has been displayed in a glass coffin and has become a tourist attraction.

The President’s father, a prominent anti-Marcos senator, was assassinated in 1983 by soldiers at Manila’s airport, sparking massive protests that eventually led to Marcos’ downfall.

Marcos’ flamboyant widow Imelda has long pushed for the burial of her husband at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, but has been opposed by pro-democracy and left-wing groups, who accused the late dictator of plundering the Southeast Asian nation’s coffers and of massive human rights violations during his two-decade reign.

The recent burial of former military chief Angelo Reyes at the heroes’ cemetery, which is reserved for soldiers, presidents, statesmen and national artists and scientists, revived questions on whether Marcos should be similarly honored.– With AP