indeed, as president duterte declares, there is no law that expressly names and bans ferdinand marcos from burial in the libingan ng mga bayani.

however, AFPR G 161 374, the AFP’s implementing rules and regulations for Republic Act 289 (that created the national pantheon), is said to very clearly state:

The remains of the following shall not be interred in the Libingan ng mga Bayani:

Personnel who were dishonorably separated/reverted/discharged from the service.

Authorized personnel who were convicted by final judgment of the offense involving moral turpitude.

i submit, mr. president, that the dictator marcos meets both criteria easily and unequivocably.

dishonorably separated/reverted/discharged from the service:  in 1986, for sins too many to mention here, marcos was ousted by the direct actions of great numbers of people in a huge non-violent 10-day protest (six days crony boycott, 4 days EDSA) never before seen in the world.  take note, please, that marcos was so freaked out, he voluntarily left the palace, the seat of power, in effect dishonorably discharging himself from his post as president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces at the people’s behest.

(the story that bongbong and imelda peddle, by the way, that they only meant to go to paoay but were “kidnapped” by the americans and brought to hawaii instead, even if true, is no excuse — it was their mistake, trusting the americans rather than the loyalist pilots of presidential choppers who had been on standby from 10 a.m. of EDSA monday, the day before his tuesday night escape from the wrath of the people.)

convicted by final judgment of offense involving moral turpitude:  may i refer you, sir, to the supreme court’s final decision dated july 2003 (G.R. No. 152154), Republic of the Philippines vs. … Ferdinand E. Marcos (Represented by his Estate/Heirs: Imelda R. Marcos, Maria Imelda [Imee] Marcos-Manotoc, Ferdinand R; Marcos, Jr. and Irene Marcos-Araneta) and Imelda Romualdez Marcos, respondents, in the ill-gotten wealth case involving the aggregate amount of $658,175,373.60 (inclusive of interest as of january 31, 2002) held by five account groups using various foreign foundations in certain swiss banks.

the PCGG showed in detail, very clearly and overwhelmingly

… how both respondents clandestinely stashed away the countrys wealth to Switzerland and hid the same under layers upon layers of foundations and other corporate entities to prevent its detection. Through their dummies/nominees, fronts or agents who formed those foundations or corporate entities, they opened and maintained numerous bank accounts….

…On the part of Mrs. Marcos, she claimed that the funds were lawfully acquired. However, she failed to particularly state the ultimate facts surrounding the lawful manner or mode of acquisition of the subject funds. Simply put, she merely stated in her answer with the other respondents that the funds were lawfully acquired without detailing how exactly these funds were supposedly acquired legally by them. Even in this case before us, her assertion that the funds were lawfully acquired remains bare and unaccompanied by any factual support which can prove, by the presentation of evidence at a hearing, that indeed the funds were acquired legitimately by the Marcos family.

… In the guise of reporting income using the cash method under Section 38 of the National Internal Revenue Code, FM made it appear that he had an extremely profitable legal practice before he became a President (FM being barred by law from practicing his law profession during his entire presidency) and that, incredibly, he was still receiving payments almost 20 years after. The only problem is that in his Balance Sheet attached to his 1965 ITR immediately preceeding his ascendancy to the presidency he did not show any Receivables from client at all, much less the P10,65-M that he decided to later recognize as income. There are no documents showing any withholding tax certificates. Likewise, there is nothing on record that will show any known Marcos client as he has no known law office. As previously stated, his networth was a mere P120,000.00 in December, 1965. The joint income tax returns of FM and Imelda cannot, therefore, conceal the skeletons of their kleptocracy.

sabi nga ni senator rene saguisag:

No doubt Macoy was a criminal genius.

He opened his secret bank account in Switzerland in 1968.

The Supreme Court ruled him a kleptocrat on July 15, 2003 and ordered the Marcoses to return billions. Done.

He had political foes detained, Ninoy, Pepe, Soc, Monching, et al. Only Ninoy was charged, after years of detention.

He destroyed the natural evolution of leaders and many young leaders were killed in the flower of their youth.

75,000 claims of human rights victims are now being processed.

The world hailed his ouster in 1986.

He was super-exec, super-court, super-legislature and a one-man continuing constitutional convention.

Which other Pinoy President does the world see in such light?

No one comes close.

and may i add, contrary to the marcos camp’s online propaganda that marcos himself was the true hero of EDSA because he restrained his loyalist soldiers from firing on the throngs of unarmed civilians, in fact marcos gave the kill-order twice.  on sunday through army general josephus ramas to marine general artemio tadiar whose tanks were ordered to “Ram through!” the crowds gathered in the EDSA-ortigas intersection so that the soldiers could get close enough to eliminate rebel leaders enrile and ramos and RAM; this was between 2 and 3 p.m., just as enrile was leaving camp aguinaldo and crossing EDSA to consolidate forces with ramos in camp crame.  unfortunately for marcos, tadiar could not bring himself to harm innocent civilians.

the next morning, monday, ramas again, and col. irwin ver, too, relayed marcos’s kill-order to marine lt. col. braulio balbas whose troops had breached the libis barricades and made it into camp aguinaldo; looking down from the high ground of aguinaldo’s golf course, balbas had awesome firepower “boresighted” on camp crame, just 200 meters away: 3 howitzers, 28 mortars, 6 rocket launchers, 6 machine guns, and 1000 rifles.  balbas defied repeated orders to fire even when his commander, gen. tadiar, confirmed that the orders were from marcos himself.

my sources are unimpeachable:  the historian alfred mccoy and his team’s account is based on interviews with rebel and loyalist soldiers after EDSA, published in two parts by Veritas in october 1986.  and cecilio arillo, the military journalist identified with enrile who was in the camps and told it as he saw it in the book Breakaway (May 1986).

if all of the above do not qualify as moral turpitude upon moral turpitude upon moral turpitude, mr. president, then, pray tell, what does?