Aquino Bans Marcos’ Burial in Philippines

MANILA —  Citing national security concerns, President Corazon Aquino refused Thursday to allow Ferdinand E. Marcos to be buried in the Philippines, but Marcos’ family and political loyalists asked her to reconsider the decision.

The Philippine army was alerted in Manila as a precaution against violent protests, but rain-swept streets in the capital were calm and empty early today in the hours after Marcos’ death in Hawaii.

Aquino, who led the popular movement that toppled Marcos from power in 1986, said she would not allow Marcos’ remains to be returned “in the interest of the safety of those who will take the death of Mr. Marcos in widely and passionately conflicting ways, and for the tranquillity of the state and the order of society.”

“Speaking for the nation,” she said in a statement, “I can say that he touched the life of every Filipino who was his contemporary as no other Filipino leader did before him. His rule changed our country. In what ways he changed it, I leave for now to others and ultimately to history to describe.”

U.S. officials, citing Aquino’s long-held position against permitting Marcos to return dead or alive, said Marcos’ remains would not be allowed out of Hawaii, where he has been in exile with his family since his ouster on Feb. 25, 1986.

U.S. officials have also barred Marcos’ wife, Imelda, from leaving Hawaii. She faces federal criminal charges in New York for allegedly using kickbacks, bribes and secret bank accounts to steal hundreds of millions of dollars and defraud U.S. financial institutions. The Philippine government has sued the Marcoses in Los Angeles, alleging that they plundered their country of about $5 billion.

Marcos died Thursday in Honolulu.

In an interview early today with a Manila radio station, Marcos’ 31-year-old son, Ferdinand (Bong Bong) Marcos Jr., said the family would hold a nine-day Roman Catholic prayer ritual in Honolulu “in the Filipino tradition.” He said no funeral arrangements had been made.

“His instructions to us were to bury him in the Philippines, and we are continuing to hope that he’ll be allowed to go home,” the son said. “He is after all a Filipino, and one of the greatest ones at that.”

Philippine Vice President Salvador H. Laurel, Aquino’s chief political opponent, led a group of Marcos loyalists who echoed those pleas in press conferences here Thursday night.

“We should now close a painful chapter in our history and put to rest all the bitterness and rancor that have divided our people,” Laurel told reporters. “I ask Cory (the president) to forget personal differences and allow Ferdinand Marcos to be brought home to be buried with all the honors due a former president.”

Laurel said that bringing the body back would not destabilize the still-struggling Aquino government, although since Aquino’s election three years ago Marcos loyalists have been linked to several attempted armed coups.

“The country will become more stable, I believe, if you let the body come home,” Laurel said.

Supporters said they will organize “prayer rallies” and demonstrations this weekend in Manila and Marcos’ home province of Ilocos Norte in northern Luzon.

“It will be very hard to contain the heartfelt feelings of his following,” said Col. Rolando Abadilla, vice governor of Ilocos Norte and former head of Marcos’ military intelligence.

Dismissing Marcos’ legacy of corruption and human rights abuses, Abadilla praised Marcos as a patriot and beloved leader.

“What do you call a person who was more than a hero but less than God?” he said. “That’s Marcos.”

Aquino’s national security adviser, retired Gen. Rafael Ileto, dismissed fears of violent demonstrations or new coup attempts.

“There might be some (protests), but it’s something we can cope with,” he said.

‘Act With Calm Sobriety’

Nicanor Yniguez, who was speaker of Parliament during the Marcos era, said that “his supporters will act with calm sobriety and no violence” if the body is returned. He called Aquino’s decision “barbaric.”

“I cannot imagine what they consider national security concerns to prevent his return,” Yniguez said.

Michael Marcos Keon, one of the few Marcos relatives still in the Philippines, said he was speaking out for the first time since his uncle fled the country.

“His body should be allowed to be returned and buried beside his mother and his sister,” Keon said. “It’s the least the government can do. He’s a dead man.”

Mother Still Unburied

Marcos’ 95-year-old mother, Josefa Edralin Marcos, died May 4, 1988, and her embalmed remains have been lying in an open coffin in a perpetual wake ever since. Family members have insisted that she could not be buried until her eldest son could return for the funeral.

Imelda Marcos had vowed in April that she would embalm her husband’s body and display it in Hawaii until she could return and scatter his ashes to “fertilize” the Philippines.

Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile also urged that Marcos be buried at home. Enrile served as Marcos’ defense minister but then helped lead a military mutiny in February, 1986, that triggered the “people power” uprising that swept Aquino to power. He was dismissed as defense minister 10 months later, after his followers attempted a coup.

“I am calling on the president to allow him to return,” Enrile said in a radio interview. “This would allow people who believed in the former president to give him his due.”

To Petition Supreme Court

Marcos supporters said they will petition the Supreme Court today to bring the body back. But the court barred Marcos’ return last week in an 8-7 decision, saying the Aquino government could take “preemptive action against threats to the state’s existence.”

Cardinal Jaime Sin, the influential archbishop of Manila who played a key role in the uprising that forced Marcos from power, urged Filipinos to pray, and to ask God “to look kindly on the soul of our departed former president.”

A Western political analyst here said he does not expect significant demonstrations or political upheaval in the controversy over Marcos’ death.

“I don’t think it will ignite a spark among the people,” he said. “I think the Philippine people are preoccupied with the economic problems here. The legacy of Marcos, the legacy of misrule, is still so fresh that people will not respond.

“I think history has passed Marcos by.”