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Duterte says Marcos burial decision based on law not sentiment

November 27, 2016 | 6:30pm

Duterte says Marcos burial decision based on law not sentiment

A student uses her laptop to display a message during a protest against last week's burial of the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Heroes' Cemetery Thursday, Nov. 24, 2016 in Manila, Philippines. Long-dead Marcos was buried last Friday at the country's Heroes' Cemetery in a secrecy-shrouded ceremony, a move approved by President Rodrigo Duterte that infuriated supporters of the "people power" revolt that ousted Marcos three decades ago.

AP Photo / Bullit Marquez

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte is unmoved by the outcry against his decision to allow the burial of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, saying he was trained as a lawyer to make judgments based on what is lawful and not on sentiments.

“We were trained with cold neutrality... I was a prosecutor,” the president told fellow Bedans during the San Beda College of Law grand alumni homecoming in Taguig last Saturday.

“Whatever is stated there (law), that’s it... You should not allow compassion and sentiment and whatever to taint your judgment,” he added.

Duterte had said that allowing the burial of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani would put closure to the issue, which is still being debated almost 30 years after the former president’s death.

Martial Law victims and human rights advocates have questioned Duterte’s decision before the Supreme Court (SC), arguing that Marcos does not deserve to be given a hero’s burial because his “crimes against the Filipino people” involved moral turpitude.

They noted a military regulation which states that those who have been dishonorably discharged from service or those convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude cannot be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

On November 8, the SC dismissed petitions questioning the legality of Duterte’s decision and ruled that Marcos can be interred at the hero’s cemetery as a former soldier and president.

Voting 9-5 with one abstention, the high court said no law prohibits the interment of the late dictator at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

The SC also disagreed with petitioners who argued that Marcos was dishonorably discharged during the 1986 EDSA revolt, saying the regulation only applies to the military.

Marcos’ remains were interred at the Libingan on November 18 in a surprise burial that sparked outrage among human rights advocates and victims of Martial Law. Duterte had claimed that he was not aware of the Marcos family’s burial plans.

Duterte, whose mother Soledad was a leader of the anti-Marcos Yellow Friday Movement in Davao City, said it is not for him to decide whether Marcos was a good president or not.

“As lawyers, we are trained to just look at the law…It was stated there president, soldier. Whether true or not, that’s not my business to dig into the yeast. Whether or not he became good or bad or worst along the years, that is not for me to decide,” he said.

“If you say that he was a coward and did not receive the (Medal of Valor) rightly so, then that’s not my problem. I was not there, I was not a soldier, I was not even born that time and I would not (decide) if he pulled the trigger or not against the enemy so that’s the long and short of it. You just have to understand my position.”

Duterte revealed that when he was still a prosecutor, he offered to resign because of his mother’s anti-Marcos stance.

“Because my mother was one of the Yellow leaders in Davao, there were only about four of them earlier in the days of Martial Law marching along the streets of Davao and at one time she was talking before a crowd of security, police and military…but you know, as a son, I had to be there,” Duterte said.

“And after that, I tendered my resignation to our head…I said ‘sir, as a matter of delicadeza,’” he added.

Duterte said his superior just advised him to keep quiet or to be neutral.