MANILA, Philippines - After sneaking in the burial of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the heroes’ cemetery, the specter of his son and namesake sneaking in as vice president of the country may not be far-fetched.
This prospect was raised by Sen. Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, who expressed outrage over what he described as a sinister move to bury Marcos as secretly and as quickly as possible at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB) last Friday.
Former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. filed last June an electoral protest against Vice President Leni Robredo, who won in the May elections by a thin margin of 263,473 votes.
“There are those who say that (Marcos replacing Robredo) so we really need to be vigilant,” Aquino told reporters. “If this kind of things (Marcos burial) can happen at this time, maybe we really should be vigilant.”
“We should closely watch what’s happening in the Supreme Court, the police and even in our Senate and Congress,” he added.
Aquino and Robredo belong to the Liberal Party.
Sen. Francis Escudero acknowledged the possibility of Marcos ousting Robredo but pointed out the resolution of the protest before the Supreme Court – acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) – will likely take some time.
The PET earlier directed both Marcos and Robredo to submit copies of the contested electoral returns.
Marcos had accused Robredo of cheating and asked the PET to issue a precautionary protection order on the election returns, and asked for the reopening of the certificates of canvass of the May 9 elections.