SEVERAL rights groups denounced the planned burial of former senator and chief presidential legal counsel Juan Ponce Enrile at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes’ Cemetery) on Saturday, November 22, 2025.
“What should have been hallowed ground has long been demeaned and dirtied by liars and thieves. Pity a country that can’t distinguish heroes from scoundrels though maybe this is exactly the kind of moment that forces a nation to check if its conscience is still alive somewhere under all that mud,” Fides Lim, spokesperson of Kapatid-Families and Friends of Political Prisoners, said.
As groups called the hero’s burial a “historical whitewashing,” lawyer and activist Aaron Pedrosa maintained the Libingan ng mga Bayani “has long been defiled with the burial of Marcos Sr.” in 2016.
“Surely, there is room for the late strongman’s criminal co-conspirator and architect of martial law. Sadly, the Libingan ng mga Bayani will continue to be desecrated as long as the corrupt remain in political power,” Pedrosa said.
Jon Ivan Torreros, vice president for Visayas at National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP), said the hero's burial “is a shame to the Philippine government.”
“There is blood on his hands. Enrile should not be buried as a hero. A hero doesn't kill civilians, the nature, and the nation. This is injustice to his victims,” Torreros said.
Enrile, the longest-serving Filipino public servant, died on November 13 at the age of 101 after a bout with pneumonia.
Pastor and rights defender Irma Balaba said the hero's burial of Enrile is “a painful reminder of how easily our history can be distorted.”
“The Libingan is meant for those whose lives genuinely uplifted the nation with integrity and selfless service. Given Enrile’s central involvement in the Martial Law regime—a period marked by grave human rights violations—his interment there does not reflect the values the place is supposed to honor,” Balaba said.
“This decision risks rewriting our collective memory and normalizing the abuses of an authoritarian past. It reinforces a culture of impunity, where power shields individuals from accountability. As someone grounded in faith and committed to the protection of human dignity, I believe this move weakens our moral compass as a nation,” she added.
Established in 1949, the 103-hectare Libingan ng mga Bayani served as a poignant memorial for the over 49,000 Filipino soldiers who died in World War II, patriots, martyrs, presidents, and influential individuals who helped shape the Catholic-majority nation’s history.
For Bonifacio Ilagan, spokesperson of Selda, a national organization that supports for victims of human rights abuses and political detainees, he said: “Like his master Ferdinand Marcos Sr., Juan Ponce Enrile will be bestowed an undeserved hero’s burial.”
“Under Enrile’s watch, up to 70,000 persons were arrested without warrant and detained without charges. Some 35,000 were tortured, more than 3,000 killed extrajudicially and at least 700 forcibly disappeared,” Ilagan said in a statement on Friday, November 21.
“To his dying day, Enrile did not express a shred of remorse for these atrocities. Instead, he justified martial law, rationalized his role in Marcos’ 14-year authoritarian rule and maintained a conspicuous silence on the bureaucratic plunder that marked the martial law years and from which he benefited immensely,” he added.
'Historical rehabilitation'
The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) earlier said “what is being revived now is the same project of historical rehabilitation.”
“This burial will not be a simple act of protocol but an effort to confer honor on a former Defense Minister whose role in the machinery of martial rule cannot be separated from its atrocities, repression, and plunder,” the group said in a separate statement on November 18.
“To bury Enrile at the Libingan is to repeat the revisionism that marked Marcos Sr.’s interment, and to again force the Filipino people to accept as ‘heroic’ what the law and history have already condemned,” it added.
In announcing his passing on November 13, Enrile’s daughter, Katrina Ponce Enrile wrote: "He dedicated much of his life to the service of the Filipino people."
Meanwhile, the Department of National Defense (DND) joined the nation in mourning the passing of Enrile.
“Enrile is an icon in defense policy and strategy, and played a foundational role in building the modern Department of National Defense. His long and storied career in public service marked profound changes in our nation’s history. His legacy in our country’s politics and governance will always be remembered,” DND said in a statement on November 13.
“The Department extends its deepest condolences to his family and loved ones. We pay tribute to his years of service to the Filipino people and his commitment to the defense and sovereignty of the Republic,” it added, as the flag in front of the DND shall be flown at half mast to honor his memory. (Ronald O. Reyes/SunStar Philippines)