ON FM BURIAL: IT'S TIME TO MOVE ON FOCUS ON OTHER
MATTERS
MANILA,
OCTOBER 19,
2011 (STAR) By Marvin Sy - After voicing his frustration
over President Aquino's final rejection of a hero's burial for his father, Sen.
Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (photo) said he has now put the issue behind him but
insisted his father's successor and the current administration have as much to
answer for regarding human rights.
In his response to questions on the issue in social networking sites Twitter
and Facebook, Marcos yesterday said it's now time to move on since there's no
indication the President would change his mind.
Marcos said that the matter was "already decided on when the President made
the announcement to the foreign media even before telling his own people,
informing our family, and his VP (vice president) to whom he entrusted the task
of conducting consultations and deciding on the issue.
"The report of his VP (Jejomar Binay), as we now know, has been relegated to
the trash bin. So, to answer your question, yes we take that as final and will
not appeal it," Marcos said.
Marcos also took a jab at presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda for
singling out his father on human rights cases when Aquino's own mother, former
President Corazon Aquino, also had her share of human rights issues.
"Does Mr. Lacierda have any inkling of the gravity of human rights violations
during Cory's term?" Marcos asked. "Is he aware of Cory's request to the US
government to bomb the airbase controlled by RAM soldiers during the attempted
coup where Filipinos would have certainly been killed by American fire upon
Cory's request and according to US Vice President (Dick) Cheney, had warned the
Americans that she would publicly deny having made the request?"
Marcos pointed out that this was confirmed by three separate sources –
Cheney, another former vice president, Dan Quayle and former secretary of state
Colin Powell in separate books that they wrote.
"Of course there's the Hacienda Luisita massacre, and the Mendiola massacre.
The Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, at the time the country's leading
human-rights group, recorded more than 1.2 million victims of dislocations due
to military operations, 135 cases of massacres, 1,064 victims of summary
executions, and 20,523 victims of illegal arrest and detention all during Cory's
time," Marcos said.
He also noted that former president Aquino also released the political
prisoners held during the administration of her predecessor and granted amnesty
to perpetrators of human rights violations.
"Mr. Lacierda would be doing this country a favor by suggesting who he thinks
should be apologizing to and compensating the human rights victims during Cory's
regime. We suggest Mr. Lacierda work on this ASAP so these victims and their
families will find their own closure as well as be adequately compensated,"
Marcos said.
"For an administration callously refusing to apologize to the families of the
dead due to the embarrassingly botched, slipshod, and bungled rescue operations
in the Luneta hostage crisis, they are quick to ask others to make an apology
even from those that have already died without a single conviction of human
rights violation whether as mastermind, implementor, or executioner. We hope Mr.
Lacierda takes this to task," he added, referring to the hostage crisis in
Luneta in 2010 that left several Hong Kong and Chinese tourists dead after a
botched rescue operation.
Marcos said it's now time to focus on other matters like working for more
financial support for local government units.
Lacierda, in reaction, said Marcos was trying to divert the attention of the
people from the atrocities during the Marcos regime.
He also defended Aquino's mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, from
Marcos' accusations, noting that being the widow of a martyred opposition
figure, it was "very clear" that the first Aquino administration had "no state
policy on the oppression of human rights."
For Marcos loyalist lawyer Oliver Lozano, Aquino's denial of a hero's burial
to the late strongman is an impeachable offense.
"Denying a state funeral for a former head of state is a violation of the
equal rights protection under the Bills of Rights, it's tantamount to betrayal
of public trust which is a ground for impeachment," Lozano said.
Lozano said even the Armed Forces of the Philippines has already officially
recognized Marcos as a decorated war veteran and former commander-in-chief. –
With Delon Porcalla, Paolo Romero, Helen Flores, Alexis
Romero, Perseus Echeminada
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2011 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All
rights reserved
PHILIPPINE
HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
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