{"id":79896,"date":"2016-08-15T05:10:41","date_gmt":"2016-08-15T09:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=79896"},"modified":"2016-08-15T05:10:41","modified_gmt":"2016-08-15T09:10:41","slug":"hundreds-protest-hero-burial-philippine-dictator-marcos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/08\/15\/hundreds-protest-hero-burial-philippine-dictator-marcos\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds protest hero burial for Philippine dictator Marcos"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"MARCOS<\/a>
MARCOS NOT A HERO: Protestors in Rizal Park, Sunday, hold up a banner that says, “Marcos Not a Hero” in protest of a hero’s burial for former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr.. (Photo by Akbayan Youth<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA, Philippines\u2014Hundreds of Filipinos rallied in stormy weather Sunday against President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to allow dictator Ferdinand Marcos to be buried in a heroes’ cemetery, but Duterte remained firm in his stance despite growing opposition.<\/p>\n

About 1,500 protesters carrying a large streamer that read \u201cMarcos not a hero\u201d braved the rain, wind and mud at Manila’s seaside Rizal Park to call on Duterte to reconsider his decision. They launched a signature campaign to try to stop the burial, tentatively set for next month.<\/p>\n

Loretta Ann Rosales, who formerly headed the government’s Commission on Human Rights, said she was tortured and molested along with thousands of other detained left-wing activists under Marcos during a dark era that clearly shows why the brutal leader does not deserve to be accorded any state honours.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs that not enough evidence? … Is Marcos a hero?\u201d Rosales asked, with the crowd yelling back: \u201cNo!\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who was among the protesters, said she has filed a Senate resolution opposing a hero’s burial for Marcos, adding that Duterte should not commit \u201cthis atrocious mistake\u201d of bestowing honours to the dictator.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarcos went down in history as an unrepentant enemy of our heroes,\u201d Hontiveros said. \u201cTo honour the man a hero and bury his remains in a place reserved for the brave and martyred is an inimitable political abomination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burying a dictator accused of massive rights violations and plunder at the heroes’ cemetery has long been an emotional and divisive issue in the Philippines, where Marcos was ousted by a \u201cpeople power\u201d revolt in 1986. He was flown to Hawaii, where he lived with his wife and children in exile until he died in 1989.<\/p>\n

His remains were later returned to his northern Philippine hometown and displayed in a glass coffin. His wife, Imelda, and two of their three children gradually regained political influence after being elected to public office.<\/p>\n

Duterte, who was sworn in as president in June, argues that Marcos is qualified to be buried at the military-run cemetery as a former soldier and president. He has disclosed that he once voted for Marcos and that his late father, a politician, served in Marcos’s Cabinet.<\/p>\n

Duterte’s communications secretary, Martin Andanar, said Sunday that the president’s position \u201cremains firm,\u201d arguing that military rules allow Marcos to be buried at the hollowed cemetery as a former president and soldier.<\/p>\n

A group of former political detainees and rights victims under Marcos called Selda said in a statement that it plans to ask the Supreme Court to stop what it calls a \u201cgrave injustice\u201d to thousands of human rights victims.<\/p>\n

Communist guerrillas, who are set to restart peace talks with Duterte’s government this month, condemned his move for its \u201cextreme insensitivity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDuterte is virtually deleting Marcos’ bloody record as a military despot and the fascist violence, human rights violations, corruption and economic hardships he made the Filipino people suffer through 14 years of dictatorship,\u201d the rebels said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA, Philippines\u2014Hundreds of Filipinos rallied in stormy weather Sunday against President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to allow dictator Ferdinand Marcos to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":79900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[6054,11920,11918,6711,11923,456,11922,11921],"class_list":["post-79896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-duterte","tag-ferdinand-marcos-sr","tag-heros-burial","tag-imelda-marcos","tag-loretta-ann-rosales","tag-protest","tag-risa-hontiveros","tag-rizal-park","mauthors-jim-gomez","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}