Duterte to burial critics: Live with it

LIMA – Despite the outcry over the burial of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the heroes’ cemetery, President Duterte stood by his decision to allow the interment and said those who cannot forgive are living with “hate.”

Duterte said Marcos’ burial was “all legal” since the dictator was a former soldier and therefore qualified to be interred at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB).

“There was really a deep wound somewhere in the

country. But for those who cannot really forgive, that’s the difficult part. You just have to live with your grief and that grief is hate. That’s the problem,” Duterte told the Philippine media delegation to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) 2016 here.

“I have only two answers: He (Marcos) was a president, he was a soldier. His name appears on the record, it was recognized. He had a valor medal for his deeds. Many are saying it was fake – but his rival is a politician,” he added.

Duterte said while some argue that Marcos was not a hero, it merely involves one side’s word against another’s.

“I have not read the Supreme Court (ruling allowing the burial) but I would stick to what I have said all along,” he said.

The late dictator’s remains were buried on Nov. 18 in a private ceremony that shocked martial law victims and human rights advocates. The burial was held ten days after the Supreme Court ruled that there is no legal impediment to interring the former president at the heroes’ cemetery.

Duterte claimed that he did not know when exactly Marcos would be buried.

“In all honesty, I’m telling you: I did not know anything. They (Marcos family) asked me when would be the appropriate time for me? I said ‘it’s up to you’,” the President said.

“I did not ask. Why would I ask? I allowed it already so what’s it to me? What would I get if I have known in advance whether he will be there for the interment on that day?” he added.

Duterte was also unfazed by criticisms that he did not respect the memory of his mother Soledad, who was a leading figure of the anti-Marcos Yellow Friday Movement in Davao City.

“My mother ’ s cause or causes she fought in her life, it was hers. But just because she is my mother, (it does not mean that I) cannot state to you that Marcos cannot be buried because according to my mother, he was a dictator. Because she had the same issues with the yellow group all over the Philippines,” he said.

‘Not a rotten trapo’

Chief presidential legal adviser Salvador Panelo also defended Duterte from the criticism of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) that he has become a “rotten trapo” (traditional politician) for allowing the hero’s burial for the dictator in exchange for Marcos support during the campaign.

“The CPP is entitled to its opinion but President Duterte not being a trapo is precisely the very reason why he won the presidential elections by a landslide,” said Panelo, a part of the President’s delegation to the APEC.

“It is not true that there is a growing protest against the burial, what we have is a vocal minority exercising its democratic right to express a grievance allowed and guaranteed by the Constitution. President Duterte is upholding such right. The clash of ideas is democracy in action,” he added.

Solicitor General Jose Calida reiterated that the Duterte government cannot be cited for contempt of court because the Department of National Defense and Armed Forces of