The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday issued a status quo ante (SQA) order stalling the implementation of a memorandum issued by the Department of National Defense (DND) allowing the burial of former strongman Ferdinand E. Marcos to the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
At a news briefing, SC Spokesman Theodore Te said the SQA will remain in effect for 20 days starting on Wednesday.
The SQA was issued in response to the plea of several groups and individuals for the issuance of an immediate relief to enjoin the orders of the DND and Armed Forces on Marcos’s Interment at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
The order was directed to Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana and Gen. Ricardo R. Visaya, Armed Forces chief of staff.
Te also said the Court decided to move the oral arguments from August 24 to 31 owing to the new petitions filed in connection with the issue.
The Court has also accepted two more petitions and ordered their consolidation with the four petitions earlier filed, assailing Marcos’s burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
Ordered consolidated were the petitions filed by groups of martial-law victims, led by former Party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo of Bayan Muna, Liberal Party Rep. Edcel Lagman of Albay and former Commission on Human Rights Chairman Etta Rosales, a group led by former Sen. Heherson Alvarez; a group of University of the Philippines students and former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Human-rights Chairman Algamar Latiph.
The petitioners argued that the planned burial of the late dictator is “illegal and contrary to law, public policy, morals and justice.”
They argued that allowing the burial of the former leader would violate Republic Act (RA) 289, or an act providing for the construction of a national pantheon for presidents of the Philippines, national heroes and patriots of the country, and RA 10368, or the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act.
They also argued that the burial would also violate constitutional provision on state policies.
The DND and the Armed Forces, as well as Marcos family, already answered the petitions on Monday and asked the Court to dismiss the petitions.
Solicitor General Jose C. Calida insisted that burying Marcos’s remains at the Libingan ng mga Bayani will promote national healing, which was President Duterte’s battlecry during his campaign.
Calida insisted that the Constitution, as well as the Administrative Code, give the President the power to order the interment of the remains of a former President and soldier at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
He explained, Duterte merely exercised his executive powers under the Administrative Code to set aside lands of the public domain for public use, and his power of control over the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office, the agency tasked to administer military shrines.
Likewise, Calida dismissed the claim of the petitioners the impending interment of former President Marcos at the Libingan would affect the search for the latter’s ill-gotten wealth.
It argued that petitioners’ claims for compensation are “distinct and separate from, and cannot in any way be connected to, the intended burial” and petitioners cannot also insist that Marcos’s burial at the Libingan would affect their search for his “ill-gotten wealth.”
Calida further argued that the decision to allow Marcos’s burial at the Libingan is not contrary to public policy, does not contravene the principles and policies enshrined in the Constitution and does not violate the country’s obligations under international laws.
Last, he explained that Duterte is not bound by the 1993 agreement between then President Fidel V. Ramos and the Marcos family to have the remains of former President Marcos interred at Batac, Ilocos Norte, which was invoked by petitioners.