BATAC CITY — Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. welcomed the pronouncement of incoming President Rodrigo R. Duterte that he would allow the burial of the late former president Ferdinand E. Marcos at the Libingan Ng Mga Bayani in Taguig City.
Earlier, Duterte said that the late President Marcos, a former soldier, deserved to be buried at the hereos’ cemetary.
“I will allow Marcos’ burial in Libingan Ng Mga Bayani, not because he was a hero but because he was a Filipino soldier,” Duterte said in a previous interview.
“We are deeply grateful to the statement of our incoming President Rodrigo Duterte favoring the burial of the late President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. It has always been our family’s position that it is our father’s right under the law to be buried there being a soldier and a former President of this country,” Marcos said.
“Our campaign has always been towards achieving unity to move the country forward. And it is this kind of pronouncement that we hope could end the decades of divisiveness that have been imposed upon us by our leaders, he added.
Duterte claimed that denying Marcos a place at the Libingan has created division in the country.
“Iyang issue ni Marcos diyan sa Libingan Ng Mga Bayani has long created a division amongst our people. Almost all of the Ilocanos, naghihinakit talaga. Lahat. Halos lahat, mga Ilocano, galit kung bakit ganoon ang ginawa sa kanya (The issue of Marcos’ burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani has divided this country for a long time. The Ilocanos were angry and hurt because this issue,” Duterte pointed out.
The Marcos body is kept in a refrigerated crypt at the Marcos Mausoleum in Batac City, Ilocos Norte. (Freddie G. Lazaro)
