PRESS RELEASE
Office of Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
0916-6406737 / 0918-9120137
16 August 2016
It is now the turn of the families of desaparecidos or enforced disappearance victims to ask the Supreme Court to junk now and forever the projected burial of the remains of President Ferdinand E. Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB)
The Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND), represented by Rep. Edcel C. Lagman and Nilda L. Sevilla, Honorary Chair and Co-Chair of FIND respectively, filed the Petition for Prohibition dated August 15, 2016 with the Supreme Court on Monday afternoon which is docketed as G.R. No. 225984.
Lagman said that the worst victims of Marcos’ atrocities during martial law are the desaparecidos because not even makeshift crosses mark their unknown graves.
The desaparecidos and other human rights violations victims (HRVVs) are the real heroes and martyrs, while the strongman Marcos is the tyrant and oppressor who does not deserve a hero’s burial in the LNMB, Lagman added.
FIND was joined by the Legitimate Eight in the House Minority like Representatives Teddy Baguilat, Jr., Tomasito S. Villarin, Emmanuel A. Billones and Edgar R. Erice.
Named respondents are Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea, Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana, AFP Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Ricardo R. Visaya, AFP Deputy Chief of Staff Rear Admiral Ernesto Enriquez, and Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO) Administrator Lt. Gen. Ernesto G. Carolina (Ret.).
According to the petitioners, “the plan to bury the remains of the late dictator in the LNMB will not achieve closure. It would perpetuate a patent injustice. It would escalate national discord and disunity. The wounds inflicted during the dark days of martial law bleed anew.”
The FIND petition interposed the following grounds for the issuance of a writ of prohibition and a temporary restraining order (TRO):
(a) The grievous sins which Marcos committed against the Filipino people render him unfit to be accorded a hero’s burial at the LNMB.
(b) The fact that Marcos was a soldier and former President is utterly diminished and completely nullified by his cardinal offenses against the Filipino nation.
(c) Republic Act. No. 10368 or the “Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013” is a legislative and executive validation of the human rights atrocities committed during Marcos’ martial law regime for which the former strongman and dictator is accountable.
(d) R.A. No. 10368 amended and modified the Armed Forces of the Philippines burial guidelines (AFP Regulations G 161-373) in the LNMB by implicitly disqualifying Marcos from being interred in the heroes’ cemetery due to the wanton brutalities committed under martial law against HRVVs.
(e) Judicial decisions of foreign courts as well as the Philippine Supreme Court have found President Marcos culpable of widespread human rights violations and amassing ill-gotten wealth.
(f) The law or guidelines for burial in the LNMB must be construed to entitle only former presidents whose lives are inspiration and worthy of emulation by generations of Filipinos as provided by R.A. No. 289 (An Act for the Construction of Pantheon for Presidents), the precursor statute to the regulations and entitlement of a hero’s burial in the LNMB.
(g) The Marcos family is in estoppel as it has waived the burial of Marcos at the LNMB after it agreed to four overriding conditions for the government’s allowing the remains of Marcos to be brought directly to Laoag, Ilocos Norte and given a quick burial there without presidential honors.
(h) No less than President Rodrigo R. Duterte declared in his State of the Nation Address that those who betrayed the people’s trust must be punished and must have their day of reckoning. Ironically, the projected state funeral of Marcos in the heroes’ cemetery is an undeserved reward and not a day of reckoning.
The petitioners also prayed for the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) because the Petition would be rendered moot and academic with the interment of Marcos at the LNMB at anytime now, unless restrained by the High Court.
EDCEL C. LAGMAN