THE Supreme Court is expected to resolve today cases seeking to stop the Duterte administration from allowing the burial of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City.
Court insider revealed that the petitions against the interment of Marcos remains at the heroes’ cemetery will be tackled by the justices during its en banc session today because the status quo ante order it issued last month stopping the Marcos burial lapses today, Oct. 18.
The SC may issue a ruling after hearing the sides of petitioners and the government in oral arguments last month.
On the eve of the SC ruling, Marcos’ eldest daughter and Ilocor Norte Gov. Imee Marcos led their supporters and gathered for a prayer vigil outside the SC compound in Padre Faura Street, Manila.
The said event concluded the “Kailian March” of Marcos loyalists who supposedly walked their way to Manila from Ilocos Norte last Friday. They passed through Ilocos Sur, La Union, Pangasinan, Pampanga and Bulacan and gathered supporters along the way.
The governor appealed for national unity by allowing his father to be buried at the Libingan.
“I think there’s nothing wrong in expressing our firm stand that Apo Marcos should now be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani along with soldiers, late former president and all those awarded with medals,” Imee Marcos told reporters.
The Ilocos Norte governor appealed to Filipinos to just support the decision of Duterte.
“To all those opposing [Marcos burial], let’s give this one to the President and to us Ilocanos as one way to forge national unity… We can expect that all wounds will heal once my father is buried in the Libingan,” she said.
The high tribunal initially issued the SQA last Aug.23, effective for 20 days or until Sept. 12.
However, at the conclusion of oral arguments last Sept.7, the SC extended the order directed at Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and Armed Forces chief-of-staff Gen. Ricardo Visaya until Oct.18 to allow the resolution of the case on merits.
The six earlier petitions were filed by groups of Martial Law victims led by former Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman and former Commission on Human Rights chairman Etta Rosales; a group led by former senator Heherson Alvarez; a group of University of the Philippines students; and former Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao human rights chairman Algamar Latiph.
The petitioners asserted that the planned burial of the late dictator is “illegal and contrary to law, public policy, morals and justice.”
They alleged that allowing the burial of the former leader would violate Republic Act No. 289 and R.A. 10368, or the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act. They also argued that the burial would also violate constitutional provision on state policies.
The government through Solicitor General Jose Calida argued that the interment would not necessarily rewrite the nation’s history and make Marcos a hero as he asked the SC to dismiss the petitions.
Calida pointed out that Marcos, being a former president and duly recognized soldier and war veteran, should be entitled to interment at the Libingan.
He said the Libingan is not exclusive for heroes as the national pantheon under Republic Act No. 289 was never really built.
Calida explained that the decision of President Duterte is not really to honor Marcos as a hero but rather “to accord him a simple mortuary rites befitting a former president, commander-in-chief and soldier.”
He stressed that it was a campaign promise of the President, who won in the elections with over 16 million votes.
The top government counsel invoked the President’s authority under the Constitution and Revised Administrative Code to decide on political question that does not involve any justiciable issue for the high court to resolve.
He said the controversy is “beyond ambit of judicial review” and warned that granting the petitions would be tantamount to an “intrusion upon executive power.”
Calida pointed out that the late former President Corazon Aquino and former President Fidel Ramos used such residual power on this controversy during their respective terms, recalling that the latter overturned the decision of the former and allowed Marcos’ remains to return to the country from Hawaii where he died in 1989.
In the first session of oral argument, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said that Marcos lost his privilege to be buried at the Libingan when he was “dishonorably discharged” and ousted by the historic EDSA people power revolution in 1986.
The National Historical Commission and Commission on Human Rights have also submitted to the SC their positions on the issue supporting petitioners.