Palace Asks More Time on Marcos Burial

MANILA, Philippines (June 05, 2011) - Malacañang yesterday appealed to the public to give President Aquino time to consider all options before he announces his decision on the burial of former president Ferdinand Marcos.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said in an interview with radio station dzRB that the Palace is studying the recommendations made by Vice President Jejomar Binay.

“We are waiting for President Aquino and certainly, given the enormity of the issue, we don’t want to preempt President Aquino,” Valte said.

Sources said Binay recommended to Aquino that Marcos’ remains be interred in Ilocos Norte with full military honors for his service as a soldier.

He, however, did not recommend a hero’s burial for his service as president.

The sources said the Marcos clan is now amenable to burying the late dictator in Ilocos Norte.

The sources said Binay’s recommendation included a survey that shows that public sentiment is divided on the issue.

The President had earlier inhibited from the issue, being the son of the late strongman’s political foes - the late President Corazon Aquino and assassinated former Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. It was the assassination of Aquino’s father in 1983 that led to the ouster of Marcos in 1986 through a popular revolt, which installed his mother as president.

Marcos’ remains are preserved in a refrigerated crypt in the family mausoleum in Batac, Ilocos Norte.

Binay’s spokesman Joey Salgado said that talk on a possible military burial for Marcos originated from Malacañang and not from the Office of the Vice President.

‘A sensible resolution’

Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone said the proposal to give Marcos military honors without having him buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani is a “sensible resolution to the issue.”

“I hope that that will put closure to a sensitive and highly divisive issue,” Evardone said in a statement. “I hope all parties concerned will accept the proposal.”

Some 200 lawmakers in the House of Representatives, including those from the opposition, signed last March a resolution urging Aquino to allow the burial of the remains of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

“I and all of those who signed the resolution, as well as millions of Filipinos want us to move on,” said Sorsogon Rep. Salvador Escudero.

He said Aquino was in favor of the resolution and had asked members of the majority bloc in the House to support it.

Escudero served as agriculture minister during the Marcos regime.

Lawyer Oliver Lozano, a Marcos loyalist, welcomed the supposed granting of military honors to the late president.

“A mountain tomb or shrine will also feature a chapel where visitors can pray as well as a museum which will showcase memorabilia, and the blue print of the former president to make the Philippine a great nation,” he said.

He said he had already written former first lady Imelda Marcos about his proposal and that preparations are underway. Lozano said the House resolution could be replicated in a stone tablet on which the names of the lawmakers who signed it will be in engraved as proof that he was declared a hero by the representatives of the people.