AN ORGANIZATION of Catholic schools in the country has urged President Rodrigo Duterte to fulfill the deathbed wish of former and late President Ferdinand Marcos to be buried in his hometown.
In a statement, the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) noted that it was the wish of the late President to be buried in Ilocos.
“At his deathbed, Mr. Marcos himself asked that he be buried next to his mother in Ilocos, where he is revered and loved,” the group said.
They believed that burying him in his hometown will unite the people and put closure on the issue.
"Fulfilling Mr. Marcos’s deathbed wish will give us all the unity and closure that this country desperately needs. At the same time, it grants out nation a final measure of justice, justice due decades-long after the dark chapter of our history under dictatorial rule,” the statement said.
At the same time, the group has opposed the plan of the government to bury Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, claiming that “he does not belong there.”
“We – students, teachers, priests and nuns, activists, good governance and human rights advocates and ordinary Filipinos – stand with Martial Law victims and claimants-survivors against granting a hero’s burial to the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. The Libingan is a national shrine for heroic Filipinos who have rendered great service and sacrifice for the nation, including 32,268 WWII military personnel who bravely suffered the Death March,” they said.
The group also urged Duterte to fulfill his promise of change.
“We look forward to your promise of change fulfilled, of old wrongs being redressed. We ask that you take the biggest step in rectifying one of the country’s oldest wrongs,” the CEAP said. (FP/Sunnex)