Pro-Marcos Pinoys in Hawaii push for state burial

A group of Filipinos in Hawaii urged the Philippine government to grant a state burial to the late President Ferdinand Marcos but a Palace official said President Benigno Simeon Aquino III will not likely change his mind. Philippine government-run dzRB radio reported on Sunday that Marcos supporters made the appeal in Honolulu, where Aquino is staying for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering. "I think a decision has been made," Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said at a press briefing Sunday afternoon (Manila time). He was referring to Aquino's earlier pronouncement that there will be no state burial for Marcos. Aquino in October reiterated that he will not allow a state burial for Marcos as the move would allegedly be an injustice to Martial Law victims. “It really would be, I think, the height of injustice to have any honors to the person who was the direct mastermind of all of their sufferings," Aquino told members of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) in Makati City. He said the victims of Martial Law have not been accorded apology and the bill providing for their compensation is still pending before Congress. Aquino said Marcos' state burial will not happen under his watch. For years, the family of the former dictator and their supporters have been asking the government to allow the burial of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Those who are buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani are military personnel who died in the line of duty or were honorably discharged, Filipino veterans, former presidents, government dignitaries, statesmen, and national artists. Ferdinand Marcos and Aquino's father Marcos (September 11, 1917 to September 28, 1989) placed the country under Martial Law from 1972 to 1981. Aquino’s father, Senator Benigno Simeon "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. was a senator who belonged to the opposition during Marcos' term. Ninoy was assassinated at the Manila International Airport on August 21, 1983. The airport was later renamed Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in his honor. Marcos was ousted in a bloodless revolt that catapulted Aquino’s late mother Corazon Cojuangco Aquino to the presidency in 1986. Marcos died in Hawaii in 1989. His remains were brought to his northern Philippine hometown in Batac in Ilocos Norte in 1993. — with a report from Amita Legaspi, LBG/VVP, GMA News