’LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT’ | Marcos burial at noon in Libingan sparks anger

MANILA, Philippines — (UPDATE 12 - 5:05 p.m.) The late dictator Ferdinand Marcos was buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani at noon on Friday, November 18.

At 12:06 p.m., the first volley of a 21-gun salute was heard, signalling the start of military honors for Marcos. This would be followed by the playing of “Taps” and the burial.

Duterte ’knows’

In a briefing outside the Libingan, Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa said President Rodrigo Duterte “knows” of the burial.

Duterte left for Peru Thursday to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Soon after his election as president, he had ordered preparations for Marcos’ burial to fulfill a promise he made to the dictator’s family.

Dela Rosa said the dictator’s body and his family flew to the Libingan from the Ilocos in three helicopters.

’At last’

“Sa wakas napatupad sa araw na ito ang huling habilin ng aking minamahal na ama, ang dating Pangulong Ferdinand Edralin Marcos na maihimlay kasama ng kanyang mga kapwa sundalo (At last, the last wish of my beloved father, the former President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos, to be buried with his fellow soldiers has been fulfilled),” Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos, the dictator’s eldest child, said in a brief statement she read more than an hour after the burial at the VIP lounge of Villamor Airbase.

She also thanked all those who “recognized my father’s right to rest at the Libingan ng mga Bayani: ”kay Pangulong Duterte na nagmungkahi nito, sa Korte Suprema na kinatigan ang pasyang ito at sa libo libong nagmamahal at nagmamalasakit sa aming pamilya (to President Duterte who proposed this, the Supreme Court that upheld this decision, and the thousands who loved and sacrificed for our family).“She also apologized and asked for understanding from their supporters for the family’s decision to keep the burial private and assured them”we will never forget your concern and sacrifices“toward what she called a”historic gathering."

Surprise and outrage

News of the burial caught many by surprise and sparked immediate outrage from quarters opposed to according Marcos any official recognition.

Human right lawyer and former Bayan Muna Representative Neri Colmenares and Renato Reyes Jr., secretary general of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, described the interment as “like a thief in the night.”

Colmenares, who as a young activist was jailed and tortured by the dictatorship’s forces, said it was obvious “the Marcoses know the political significance is the message here,” and that is why “they won’t let it (Libingan burial) go.”

He called Friday’s events a “legal travesty” because the Superme Court has yet to hear on November 22 the motion for reconsideration the petitioners against Marcos’ burial had filed with the tribunal. Seven groups in all had sued to stop the re-burial at the LNMB.

By “depriving people their rights to due process” in shortcircuiting the judicial process that had not yet ended, “they have forced people to go back to the streets,” he added.

Despite the tight security measures, a lone protester, clad in black, showed up near the gates of the Libingan and stood silently with a raised fist. She told reporters she was supposed to join friends at a protest center in Timog, Quezon City but decided to head to the Libingan because “malapit lang ako dito (I was just near here).”

NCRPO chief Oscar Albayalde confirms former President Marcos is getting a military burial at 12 noon Friday.

’Simple rites’

Taking questions from media after Governor Marcos spoke at the Villamor Airbase briefing, AFP spokesman brigadier General Restituto Padilla said the military had been given “very short notice” about the burial but explained this was not a problem because there is funeral services unit that can be mobilized quickly.

He said what was seen as the furtiveness of the burial preparations was part of the Marcoses’ wishes “to keep this private and in confidentiality.”

Padilla said the burial “took all of one hour” from the arrival of the Marcos family and the dictator’s remains and was attended by around a hundred people, including military personnel.

Chief Superintendent Oscar Albayalde, the National Capital Region Police Office chief, who first tweeted confirmation of the burial, said they were informed by Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos on Thursday of their plans to bury her father.

A military general, who asked not to be named, sent this message when asked about the burial:

“Remains of the late President will be brought to Manila today for internment at the LNMB. Per the desire of the family, it will be a private burial and was requested held in confidentiality. Military honors appropriate for the deceased will be rendered per existing AFP regulations. Notice was given to all concern late yesterday. The Marcos family will have a statement after the internment at a place to be announced.”

Albayalde said there was no mass, only a prayer and a “brief viewing” and a 21-gun salute from the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Media and Marcos loyalists who flocked to the Libingan were not allowed inside the cemetery, which was tightly guarded by police and soldiers. The loyalists said they, too, were surprised at the news, saying they had been conducting daily vigils at the Libingan since the Supreme Court ruled to allow the burial.

The burial comes the same day groups opposed to Marcos’ burial mount “Black Friday” protests against the interment and 10 days after the Supreme Court ruled against petitions seeking to stop the burial. It is seen to preempt plans by the petitioners against the burial to file motions for reconsideration with the high court and ask it to extend the status quo.

Marcos placed the country under martial law in 1972 and went on to reign as a dictator for 14 years until he was ousted by the 1986 People Power uprising. The dictatorship was marked by widespread human rights violations and the plunder of the country’s wealth.

Reactions

Senator Francis Pangilinan, who opposes the burial, vowed to work for the transfer of the dictator’s remains from the Libingan.

He also said that, contrary to the closure those in favor of Marcos’ burial, including Duterte, predict, “this administration and the Marcos family have reopened the wounds caused by the abuses, torture, killings and plunder committed by the dictatorship.”

National Union of People’s Lawyers president Edre Olalia said the burial “smacks of bad faith, bad taste and even bad odor, as it were. The heirs of the tyrant have even outclassed him by showing brazen contempt even for the formal judicial and legal processes, not to mention mocking the cries for justice of the victims.“”It is consistent though with the lying, stealing and killing of the dictator: doing it with a straight face, washing hands, covering up and getting away with it,” he added.

"The Marcos family and the military should be cited in contempt of court and in contempt of the judgment of history,” Olalia said.

Bayan’s Reyes said the “hasty burial” was because of “fear of the growing protests of the pelple” but said the Marcos family “are mistaken though if they think we will let this day pass without any protest.”

“Let this day be marked not by the rejoicing of the heirs of the dictator, but by the cries of outrage by the Marcos victims and the people who refuse to forget the judgement of history,” he said.

’You can’t cheat history’- Constantino

Renato Constantino Jr., activist businessman, issued a statement for the Constantino Foundation, quoting his father, the late nationalist historian Renato Constantino, who said on Sept. 24, 1975: “...in the end, you cannot cheat history. History will not err in its judgment because no matter how you fabricate achievements, glorify events or conceal truths, a true people’s history will eventually unmask the fake heroes and the judgment on them will be harsh and severe.”

“The Constantino Foundation joins the people’s disgust at this brazen attempt to revise history,” said the statement by the son.

The human rights organization Karapatan, which opposes Marcos’ burial at the Libingan, denounced the “dark day in the nation’s history when a tyrant, a murdered, a thief, is celebrated as a hero by a state of oligarchs and traitors.”

At the same time, Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said “the Filipino people’s protest and struggle for genuine justice, freedom and democracy can be a beacon of light as we march to condemn this blatant and unfrogivable distortion of history.”

Senator Risa Hontiveros, in a statement, called Marcos’ interment a “fake hero’s burial” and “nakaw na sandal (stolen moment).”

She said even if Marcos managed to smuggle out the nation’s wealth, evade accountability and justice, and have his body smuggled into the Libingan, “he can never evade the truth of history” or “claim the place in Filipinos’ hearts that is reserved only for real heroes.”

“Hindi bayani si Marcos. Hindi bayani ang isang taong umusig, nanakit at pumaslang sa napakarami nating mga bayani (Marcos is no hero. A person who hunted, harmed and killed so many of our heroes is not a hero),” she said.

Thom Andrade, Ernie Reyes, Lira Dalangin-Fernandez, InterAksyon.com

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