PNoy leads reinterment of Quirino's remains at Libingan ng mga Bayani

President Benigno Aquino III on Monday led the re-interment of the remains of the late President Elpidio Quirino at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City.

Quirino's remains were earlier exhumed from their original resting place in Manila South Ceremony.

Aquino joined the funeral march to the gravesite together with the Quirino family, former President Fidel Ramos, some members of the diplomatic corps, and military service commanders.

Judy Araneta-Roxas, mother of Manuel "Mar" Roxas II, also came to attend the reinterment. It was Quirino who took oath as president when former President Manuel Roxas died in 1948. Quirino was Roxas' vice president.

Quirino was given a 21-gun salute and volley of fire before the pallbearers turned over the folded flag to President Aquino, who then handed it over to Eduardo Quirino, grandson of the late President Quirino.

'A year in the making' 

In a chance interview, Eduardo said the transfer of his grandfather's remains from the South Cemetery was "a year in the making" starting with a request to the National Historical Commission of the Philippines.

"Because all the Philippine presidents, when they die, the remains belong to the country, it doesn't belong to the family anymore. That's why we had to ask permission for that," he told reporters.

Eduardo said the family was "very happy" after the reinterment. He said even former President Fidel Ramos has said that he wants to be buried next to Quirino.

"He wants to be beside his President because President Ramos served in the Korean War during the time of President Quirino and even I heard the Osmeña family are already discussing the transfer of the remains of President Sergio Osmeña from the North Cemetery," he said.

Eduardo said he was six when his grandfather died.

"I remember the tower in Malacañang. There were two towers and I would climb up one of the tower because my father, he had small airplanes...I enjoyed going up because I could play with the airplanes in the tower on top," he shared.

The reinterment coincided with Quirino's 60th death anniversary. He died of a heart attack at his residence in Novaliches on February 29, 1956.

Quirino was president from April 17, 1948 to December 30, 1953, when the country was rebuilding itself from the destruction of World War II.

He is the third president to buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, joining former Presidents Carlos Garcia and Diosdado Macapagal.  — KBK/RSJ/BM, GMA News