Marcos family agrees to military burial in Ilocos

WASHINGTON – Vice President Jejomar Binay said that the Marcos family has agreed to his recommendation that the remains of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos be buried in Ilocos Norte with full military honors instead of at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig.

Binay described his recommendation as “solomonic” and expressed optimism that President Aquino will accept it.

“Where Marcos should be buried and whether he should be given military honors has been a divisive issue in the Philippines for the past 20 years and a recent SWS poll showed there was still an almost even split on the matter,” he said.

Binay, who led the 113th Philippine Independence Day rites at a flag-raising ceremony in the embassy grounds here, told a press conference it was only fair that Marcos be buried with military honors because “he was a soldier, he wore the uniform.“

“Even assuming that some of the medals Marcos claimed to have won for bravery and heroism were fake, you cannot take away the fact that he served as a soldier in World War II and therefore is entitled to military honors,” he said.

As he saw it, the main stumbling block was whether Marcos, a former president of the country, should be interred at the Libingan. But since the Marcos family has agreed he be buried in his hometown in Batac, Ilocos Norte, Binay said there was no longer any problem.

Aquino tasked the vice president with settling the divisive Marcos issue and is expected to announce his decision on Binay’s recommendation soon.

The vice president, who is in the United States to take a short course on housing finance at the Ivy-League Wharton School in Pennsylvania, led the traditional Philippine Independence Day in New York on June 5.

Binay also welcomed the entry of Mar Roxas into the Cabinet despite their political differences.

“I’m a team player and it’s good to have another team player in the person of Senator Roxas,” he said.

Roxas has a pending electoral protest over the results of the vice presidential race last year which went Binay’s way.

Before the press conference, Binay, in his capacity as chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), signed an agreement with Cities Alliance, a partner of the World Bank, for a grant of $450,000 for help in developing a national slum upgrading strategy.

From Washington, Binay heads to Philadelphia for the housing finance seminar at Wharton, which ends on Friday.

He said he has to be in Manila by June 19 for a very important date.

Asked if it was for Rizal Day, he smiled and said he had to attend Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s 40th wedding anniversary celebration.

Santiago will be renewing her wedding vows with former interior undersecretary Narciso Santiago on June 19 at the Manila Cathedral, with the President as their best man.

Binay is one of many principal sponsors including Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who will be his partner.