Duterte: Marcos burial at Libingan ng Mga Bayani 'doesn't mean he's a hero'

Burying the remains of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani "doesn't mean he's a hero in the true sense of the word," President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday.

He added that the law allows former soldiers and presidents to be buried there. Duterte added he would be violating the law if he didn't allow Marcos to be interred at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

He said he didn't care about the issue of whether Marcos had fake war medals or that the former president's World War II service did not appear in United States records.

Duterte also laid the blame on the past Aquino administrations for not revising the law.

"Dapat nagpasa sila ng batas na hindi pwedeng ilibing si Marcos," said Duterte.

The late former Corazon Aquino was installed via the 1986 People Power Revolution that ended the Marcos dictatorship. Her son Benigno Aquino III, meanwhile, was president from 2010 to 2016. His father Benigno Aquino Jr., a staunch Marcos opponent, was slain in 1983 upon his return from exile to the Philippines, sparking widespread protests against the dictatorship. —JST, GMA News