Only model Filipinos deserve hero's burial, Marcos not one of them — Robredo

 

Only Filipinos who gave honor and served the country well should be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani and the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos is not one of them, Liberal Party vice presidential bet Leni Robredo said Saturday.

 

"Para sa akin, hindi," Robredo told reporters in Bulacan when asked to react on whether Marcos, father of her rival Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., deserves a place in the hero's cemetery. 

 

“Sa pangalan pa lang, libingan iyon ng mga Pilipino na tinitingala natin na nag-ambag nang husto at kailangang maging modelo ng bawat Pilipino,” she added.

 

She also said there should be no special treatment to those who aspire to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. 

 

"Walang special treatment iyong nililibing doon. Iyong nililibing doon, kung sino ang deserving,” she said.

 

Robredo's running mate, former interior secretary Manuel Roxas II, had also expressed opposition to a hero's burial for Marcos, whose 20-year rule was tainted by allegations of massive corruption and human rights abuses. 

 

Roxas though wanted the people to decide on the issue.  

 

Talks of giving Marcos a hero's burial cropped up again following the country's commemoration of the 1986 People Power revolt that ousted him from power in 1986. 

 

It also came days before the remains of former President Elpidio Quirino will be exhumed from the Manila South Cemetery in Makati City and re-interred in the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City in time for his 60th death anniversary on Monday, Feb. 29. 

 

A Quirino descendant explained the sixth president was not interred at the Libingan ng mga Bayani since there was no proper recognition of a president passing away at the time.

“When Tiyo Elpidio died, that time there was no proper recognition of a president passing away, he died he was already an ex-president, so this time the re-interment will accord him that honor,” said Quirino's niece, Lila Quirino, in a television interview on Friday.

Quirino served as president from 1948 to 1953. — APG/DVM, GMA News