THE issue of former Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos’ burial continues to be a fiery topic of discussion – even for Pinoys abroad.
On Sunday, Vice-President Jejomar C. Binay flew back to the Philippines from an official trip to the United States, carrying an excess baggage – a message from Filipino-Americans who want the Aquino administration to “provide final closure” to the dilemma.
Earlier, the vice-president made a recommendation to Pres. Aquino, suggesting that Pres. Marcos be buried in his hometown in Ilocos Norte (instead of Libingan ng Mga Bayani, as first proposed by the Marcoses) with full military honors.
On June 17, Pres. Aquino finally ruled out a Libingan burial for the former strongman, saying that there will no hero’s burial for a dictator on his watch.
However, he is still finalizing his decision on VP Binay’s proposal.
When the clamor for Marcos’ burial first surfaced in his months-old term, Pres. Aquino declined to make a decision by himself on the issue. He said that he would be naturally biased about the issue and instead, delegated the task to VP Binay.
The president said that it would be “very difficult” to allow Marcos to be buried with military honors, “but again, we have to be a leader of the entire nation.”
Officials are trying to verify if the former strongman has already been accorded military honors after his remains were flown back to Batac, Ilocos Norte in 1993. If that were the case, “then the only remaining act that has to be done is the actual burial in Ilocos Norte,” said Pres. Aquino.
The country is almost equally divided on the issue, according to a survey conducted by Social Weather Station in March.
A majority of the members of The House of Representatives have backed a resolution which supports a hero’s burial for the late president, citing his patriotism in building the country’s “modern foundations with his infrastructure projects.”
However, pro-democracy and left-wing groups have vehemently opposed the proposal because of all the massive human rights violations and plunder that Marcos committed during his almost 20 years in power.
Pres. Aquino said that he plans to commission a group to document the ordeals of human rights victims so they may be stored in historical records “with the end in view of making sure that these don’t happen again.”
Meanwhile, The Makati Business Club – a group of top business executives – have also expressed their disdain over the resolution, saying that “a gross distortion of the late dictator’s true legacy of autocracy, ruined democratic institutions, violent political repression, unprecedented wholesale corruption, shameless nepotism, crony capitalism.”
While Pres. Aquino seeks to come up with a final resolve to the long-standing dispute, he is also concerned that it might open old wounds.
“It really is difficult that instead of moving us closer to having a closure, it really might just revive all of the pain, the anguish and, shall we say, the thirst for justice,” he said.
Pres. Marcos’ burial still hangs in the balance and the clamor for a decision becomes louder each day, from both ends.
With all things being considered and a process of elimination still in the works, hopefully, a compromise will be reached soon.
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Midweek June 22-24, 2011 Sec A pg. 6)