STATEMENT OF SEN. HONTIVEROS ON SC ALLOWING MARCOS BURIAL IN LNMB

Hontiveros: Supreme Court has failed the test of history

The Supreme Court has miserably failed the test of history and broken our hearts. By allowing the remains of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos to be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani, the high tribunal has failed to protect the truth from the Marcoses' fictional universe.

The decision intends to effectively wipe the Marcos slate clean and negate the sacrifices of the thousands of brave souls who fought and suffered under the brutal Marcos dictatorship.

It also aims to contravene the core policy and historical basis of our 1987 constitution, which was drafted to reject martial law. This decision undermined existing laws such as the Human Rights Victims and Reparation Act of 2013 aimed to provide full and effective reparation to the victims of Martial Law and recognition of the abuses that took place.

However, I believe that the SC decision is not executory. The decision to give the late dictator a hero's burial is still in the hands of President Rodrigo Duterte.

I call on the President to respond to the challenge of history and reject with finality all plans to give Marcos a hero's burial. I ask him to rise above his indebtedness and loyalty to the Marcos family. If at all that he received money from the Marcoses for his Presidential bid, President Duterte has no right to return such favors with the history and the dignity of the Filipino people.

President Duterte is at a critical juncture in history. He could either stand up for truth and justice or submit himself as an instrument to the dictator family's desperate attempt to rewrite history and clear their name. I urge the President to choose well.

I also call on my colleagues in the Senate to sign Senate Resolution No. 86, which I filed, expressing the sense that Marcos should not be allowed to be given a hero's burial. At a time when truth and history are threatened, the Senate must make a brave stand.

Lastly, I call on the people -- especially our millennials -- to fight to make sure their own history is not rewritten for them. Let us not forget George Santayana's warning: "those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."No tombstone, no grandiose cemetery can change the fact that Marcos was not a hero. He was a plunderer, torturer and a thief with a family seeking to rewrite history to serve their interests. It is our duty to stand against this travesty and say--never again. Only then can we look back to the past with pride, and to the future with hope. Let us not fail the test of history.