MANILA, Philippines - As it has been in the past, the matter of allowing former President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani remains a divisive issue, even within the halls of the Senate.
As expected, President Aquino remained firm on his stance against granting the appeal of the Marcos family to have their patriarch buried at the heroes’ cemetery since he was a former president as well as a soldier.
For Sen. Francis Escudero, the Marcos family should be granted their long-standing wish in order to heal old wounds and allow the country to move on from this long divisive issue.
It was Escudero’s father, the late Sorsogon Rep. Salvador Escudero III, who authored a resolution in 2011 pushing for the grant of a hero’s burial to Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
Close to 200 members of the House of Representatives signed the resolution, but this failed to change the mind of President Aquino, whose father, former Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., was assassinated during the Marcos regime.
Escudero said the fact that Marcos was a former president and soldier cannot be denied and based on these two things alone, he deserves to be buried at the Libingan.
He said the current administration should seriously consider granting the request of the Marcoses, which has gone on for close to 30 years, in the same way that it has been committed to end the Muslim insurgency in Mindanao with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.