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Noynoy’s camp says Marcos has no place among heroes


(Updated 4:18 p.m.) The late Ferdinand Marcos does not deserve a place among heroes, contrary to the openness of two presidential aspirants to give him a hero's burial, the camp of Liberal Party (LP) presidential bet Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III said on Tuesday. Noynoy and LP campaign manager Butch Abad separately issued the statement as the country commemorates the popular street uprising on EDSA that ended the late dictator's two-decade rule and ushered the late President Corazon Aquino, Noynoy's mother, into the presidency. In an ambush interview after a presidential forum on human rights at the Hotel Intercontinental in Makati City, Noynoy said there was no reason to honor the late strongman by burying him at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes' Grave) in Taguig City. "Mayroon tayong alaala na pinamahalan tayo ng mas mahabang panahon, 1965 to 1986, ano nga ba ang masasabing katangi-tangi na dapat ilibing sa Libingan ng mga Bayani (He ruled us for so long, 1965 to 1986, what has he done to warrant a burial at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani)?" he said. "Napakarami po nating problema sa panahon ngayon mula sa panahon noon, bakit natin bibigyan ng puri (We have so many problems from that time until now, why should we honor him)?" he added. In a separate press conference at the LP headquarters, Abad noted that while LP candidates have yet to formally adopt a stance on Marcos's burial and his place in Philippine history, the party had always opposed the transfer of his body to the Libingan ng mga Bayani. "Historically, we have always fought the interment of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani because that [cemetery] is reserved for heroes, and we do not concede that Marcos [was] a hero," said Abad, who was the Aquino administration's agrarian reform secretary. "In fact, we still have to find closure on many of the abuses that our people suffered [during the Marcos era], in terms of the political repression, what they called then the conjugal kleptocracy, and many other issues," he added. Amidst the rising wave of lawlessness and the threat of a communist insurgency, Marcos ruled by decree, curtailed press freedom and other civil liberties, closed down Congress and media companies, and ordered the arrest of opposition leaders and militant activists, including his staunchest critic, Noynoy's father, the late Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. Villar, Gibo on Marcos Noynoy's closest rival, Nacionalista Party standard-bearer Senator Manuel Villar Jr., on Sunday said he saw no problem with allowing Marcos to be buried at the Libingan. Villar, whose senatorial ticket includes the late strongman's son, Ilocos Norte Rep. Ferdinand “Bongbong" Marcos Jr., said Marcos's accomplishments should be viewed with a proper perspective. Former Defense chief Gilberto Teodoro Jr., the Arroyo administration's standard-bearer, earlier said he was open to extending a state-sponsored funeral for the elder Marcos, who imposed martial rule on the country for nine years starting in 1972. Marcos died in Hawaii at age 72, three years after he was ousted, due to complications from lupus. His body was refused entry to the Philippines, so his wife Imelda kept him in a refrigerated mausoleum in Oahu. Years after his death, the Philippine government allowed Marcos’s corpse to return to his homeland, but blocked his burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. His body is now in a refrigerated crypt in the Marcos family mausoleum in the village cemetery in Batac, Ilocos Norte province. EDSA 1, a failure? On Monday, Bongbong exalted his father's government and said the People Power Revolution was a failure that worsened the country's economic and political condition. (See: EDSA 1 was a failure, Marcos son says) Bongbong's fellow senatorial candidate, Bayan Muna Rep. leader Satur Ocampo — one of those jailed by Marcos for his political views —also said the legacy of the 1986 popular uprising was incomplete in the absence of genuine agrarian reform. "This is where the promises of EDSA failed. The greatest number of Filipinos benefited little from EDSA when they were denied their right to till the land and enjoy the fruits of their labors," Ocampo said in a statement on Tuesday. Mrs. Aquino used land reform as the centerpiece of her administration's social legislative agenda, but her family background and social class as a privileged daughter of a wealthy and landed clan became a lightning rod for criticisms against her agrarian reform agenda. Noynoy and other LP stalwarts, however, noted that critics could not belie the fact that Mrs. Aquino had rallied the country behind the campaign to topple dictatorial rule and restore civil and political rights, among others. The Liberal Party standard-bearer will lead the party's commemoration at the Araneta Center of the 1986 street uprising on February 25, exactly 24 years after Marcos and his family fled the country and were forced to go into exile. — NPA/RSJ/KBK, GMANews.TV
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