De Lima files own petition vs. Marcos burial at Libingan ng mga Bayani

Senator Leila De Lima on Tuesday filed a petition before the Supreme Court opposing the burial of former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, a day before the justices will hear the arguments for or against the plan backed by President Rodrigo Duterte.

It was not immediately clear if the petition will be consolidated with the six other petitions as De Lima's plea only made it to the docket section just minutes before office hours closed at 5 p.m.

De Lima disagreed with the Office of the Solicitor General's position that the burial would result in national healing, saying it will erase "what we, as a people, have accomplished, not just to heal ourselves from past atrocities but, even more importantly, to protect ourselves from the rise of another despot who could inflict the same, if not greater, damage."

She echoed the sentiments of other petitioners that Marcos was not a hero because he committed offenses involving "moral turpitude" such as accumulation of ill-gotten wealth and massive human rights abuses during his 20-year rule, which was ended by a People Power revolt in February 1986.

"This supposedly benign and even beneficent act of so-called 'reconciliation,' no matter how those who support it may attempt to paint it as such, is as close to being wholesome and salubrious as sugarcoated arsenic to our hard-earned history, humanity, our democratic way of life and future," the petition read.

The petition added no president had the "power to rewrite history" and that the burial was unconstitutional "for being contrary to the spirit and very existence of the 1987 Constitution, and the will of the Filipino people that ratified it."

By preparing for the burial, De Lima said the Department of National Defense "ignored" the decisions handed down by the SC and international courts "declaring Marcos to have accumulated ill-gotten wealth, and therefore unworthy of emulation and inspiration as a President to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani."

"The Honorable Court must not allow the judgment of history and of the Filipino people to be frustrated and thwarted by letting Marcos be honored in a state funeral and burial among heroes," the petition stated.

"Otherwise, the spectacle we will witness is not only the state funeral of the dictator and tyrant Marcos, but the burial of our own history as a nation, together with the memory of the real heroes who truly shed their blood for the freedom and liberty of the  Filipino people."

Duterte believes Marcos deserves a place at the Libingan because he was a soldier and former president, an assertion rejected by various quarters including victims of Martial Law abuses.

To express her solidarity, De Lima joined a rally against the planned burial, which the SC stopped for 20 days last week, in Luneta recently.

De Lima is a staunch critic of Duterte, who has accused her of protecting drug syndicates in the New Bilibid Prison when she still had supervisory powers over the national penitentiary when she was justice secretary.

The senator has denied the allegations against her even as she decided against attending the upcoming House investigation into her alleged drug links.

She also rebuffed calls from Duterte to resign, saying doing so would be a sign of guilt and weakness. —NB, GMA News