MANILA, Philippines – Allowing the remains of President Ferdinand E. Marcos to be interred at the Libingan ng mga Bayani would “bury this culture of anger, vindictiveness and hatred for the sake of future generations and then we begin to take off economically,” Sen. Gregorio B. Honasan II said Friday. Honasan issued the statement after President Benigno S. Aquino III created a panel to study the unresolved Marcos burial issue.
The remains of the late President, now at the Marcos compound in Ilocos Norte, were brought to the Philippines in September 1992 from Hawaii where he died of kidney failure in 1989.
He was exiled to Hawaii following the 1986 EDSA People Power movement that installed Aquino’s mother, Corazon C. Aquino, the widow of the assassinated Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., as president.
Honasan was one of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) officers who joined then Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile and then Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Fidel V. Ramos, in the military uprising that eventually became into the EDSA Revolution in 1986.
Ironically, Marcos son, Sen. Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., Honasan and President Aquino, were colleagues at the Senate in the 14th Congress (2007-2010). Enrile is now the Senate President.
“Whatever differences we have about this decision to finally lay to rest the remains of former President Marcos… what price political or otherwise we are willing to pay for meaningful reconciliation, unity among our people… once we determine that, we can make an easier decision,” Honasan said.
Mario Casuyuran, Manila Bulletin
