MALACAÑANG is unfazzed by the protest rally staged by human-rights victims during the Marcos era, and will push through with the burial of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
Presidential Communications Secretary Martin M. Andanar said President Duterte will tolerate lawful protests against Marcos’s burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, but will still push through with the plan despite opposition from some sectors.
Hundreds of martial-law victims rallied at the Rizal Park on Sunday to ask President Duterte to reconsider the plan to bury Marcos at the hallowed heroes’ burial grounds.
But Mr. Duterte had insisted he is only following the law in allowing former presidents and former soldiers to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. “The President has repeatedly said he would allow any form of protest, like organizing mass actions against the Marcos burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani,” Andanar said in a statement.
“This is consistent with his philosophy that criticism, good or bad, true or not, is part of the territory of governance in public,” he said.
Andanar said President Duterte will not be distracted by the protests from some sectors against the Marcos burial, and will enforce governance as usual “with his full and undivided attention in winning the war against drugs, criminality and corruption.”
“The President’s stance, however, remains firm: There is clarity in the regulations governing the late President Marcos’s burial,” Andanar said, referring to the law that allows only former presidents and fallen soldiers to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.