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Marcoses broke promise to bury FM’s body at once in Ilocos – Fidel Ramos

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Marcos body was accorded military honors in 1993

My exclusive

By Raïssa Robles

 

Should we be surprised?

In his very last news conference as outgoing President, Fidel Ramos told reporters that the Marcos family broke one of the three preconditions they had agreed to in exchange for bringing Ferdinand Marcos’ remains to the Philippines.

“I authorized the return of the remains of the late president under certain conditions,” Ramos said on June 24, 1998 on the eve of his transfer of presidential power to President-elect Joseph Estrada. [I’m sure media outlets can dig up the sound bites on this.]

Ramos, a cousin of Ferdinand Marcos, said his first condition was that the body not stop over in Manila but be flown directly to Ilocos. That was fulfilled. And it is for this reason that no public wake was held for Marcos’ body in Manila.

The second precondition was that during Marcos’ burial in Ilocos, “he (would) be given the honors befitting a major of the armed forces,”  Ramos said. The Marcoses in effect agreed that their father would be denied state honors.

That, too, was fulfilled, Ramos said. Which was why Marcos’ remains were not given a 21-gun salute but those of a middle-level military officer. The rank of major was the highest rank Marcos claimed being promoted to during the Second World War.

But the last precondition – a quick burial – was never fulfilled, Ramos disclosed five years after the Marcoses broke their promise on this issue.

Ramos told  reporters:

My third condition was that he be buried in the meantime in Ilocos Norte, (pending) on the decision of the family as to the place. But that was not fulfilled because he was not buried.

Wait a minute.

Did Ramos say Marcos was given burial military honors befitting an army major?

Then why are the Marcoses still demanding full military honors when that was clearly not part of the deal they agreed to in order to transport his body to the country?

Seeing that the Marcoses gave their promise to a President of the Republic of the Philippines. And that promise remains unfulfilled. Can’t the incumbent Philippine President just collect on that burial promise?

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UPDATED INSERT –

Reporting on the same news conference,  the Philippine Daily Inquirer  published on June 25, 1998  that two of the three preconditions were fulfilled – the direct trip to Batac and military honors befitting an army major:

“These  two conditions were eventually fulfilled when Marcos was brought to Batac through the Laoag International Airport. He was later given military honors before being placed in an air-conditioned mausoleum in the Marcos ancestral home in Batac.”

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Below is the New York Times article on the return of Marcos’ body which the Marcoses then said would be buried in a “black marble mausoleum.”

imelda marcos with dead body“Fooled ya,” Imelda Marcos must have muttered afterward as she displayed his corpse like a grotesque version of Sleeping Beauty” inside a glass coffin.

If you notice, according to the NYT report, the body of Marcos’ mother Josefa had been kept in a refrigerated crypt for 10 years since her death in 1988.

Hmmm. Imelda Marcos buried her mother’-in-law’s body and instead kept Ferdie in a refrigerated crypt. Why didn’t she just lay both bodies side by side? It would have been a first – a mom-and-son death show.  Did that gesture say something about Imelda Marcos’ relations with her mother-in-law?

Body of Marcos Is Flown Home to the Philippines

Published: September 07, 1993 (New York Times)

Four years after he died in exile in Hawaii, the body of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos arrived here this morning on board a chartered plane from Guam.

A mournful Imelda Marcos held back tears as a woman plaintively sang a traditional mourning song, “Our Signs and Cries are Endless.” Several thousand of Mr. Marcos’s loyal friends and supporters cheered and sang “I Am a Filipino” as the plane landed.

Seven and a half years after he was forced to flee the Philippines after a popular uprising, his body was returned to the country he ruled with an iron hand for nearly 20 years.

Mr. Marcos died in exile in Hawaii in September 1989, but his successor, Corazon C. Aquino, rejected pleas by his widow, Imelda, to allow burial in his native soil.

Mrs. Aquino cited reasons of national security. Although the return of Mr. Marcos’s body is being ignored in much of the country, here in his home province of Ilocos Norte the Marcos name is still celebrated and the deposed President is considered a hero.

Thousands turned up at Laoag International Airport, 320 miles north of Manila, to take part in welcome ceremonies arranged by Mrs. Marcos, who mounted a macabre and festive spectacle. Schoolchildren performed folk dances, priestesses performed rites of communing with the dead and chickens were slaughtered to drive away evil spirits. Vendors made brisk business by selling pins, fans and T-shirts.

Mr. Marcos’s body will lie in state for four days before it is publicly displayed in a black marble mausoleum built by his wife on the grounds of the old Marcos family home in the town of Batac.

Mr. Marcos’s mother, Josefa, who died in 1988, will also be buried this week. Her body has been kept in a refrigerated coffin, as her family refused to bury her until her son’s remains were brought home.

President Fidel V. Ramos has refused to give full state honors to Mr. Marcos, who during his time in power imposed martial law, arrested and tortured thousands of opponents and ransacked the national treasury. But by allowing Mr. Marcos’s burial here, Mr. Ramos is also trying to woo the support of the still-substantial Marcos constituency and douse the passion of intensely loyal supporters.

Members of the old Marcos retinue have been in full attendance: former generals and Cabinet ministers and the society matrons who once graced the balls at the presidential palace arrived in their limousines on Sunday to call on Mrs. Marcos, who held court in the cold and cavernous family mansion.

Comments

  1. Marcos is in good place now and he will probably say that these people who wants to bury him inside the Libingan ng mga Bayani are all stupid. Any dead people will wish to be buried peacefully if they can and not subject themselves to anymore stupidity. For them they are dead already, what do they care if you wrap them in a burito wrap or flush them in the toilet. These people are not respecting the dead but insisting on their foolish pride.

  2. wala namang problema kung ililibng si marcos doon. basta palitan ang pangalan ng libingan na yan at gawing “libingan ng mga dating pangulo at sundalo” or simply “libingan”.

    bigyan ng halaga ang pagkabanal ng salitang “bayani”

  4. I fully understand Imelda. I would do the same if given the chance. It’s her only way of telling the people how much she respect and love the man of her life regardless of what others say. Umibig ka na ba? Handyman din ang ggawin pagnangyari sa imo.

      • “I think it’s gross to keep your dead spouse’ body on display, coated with wax.”

        I’m really sleepy right now because I read that as” coated with tax.” Oh well, I guess it works that way too.

    • Dapat magpatayo na lang si Imelda ng sariling Libingan Ng Mga Bayani sa private nilang lupa hindi dun sa pag-aari ng govt dahil sila lang naman ang nagsasabing bayani Si Marcos.

  5. Why is FVR trying to pass the buck now?? He was supposed to know the kind of character imelda is ! Why did he allow the demoness to outwit him? He should have done something about it to rectify his booboo right after the preconditions were broken!! He allowed the marcoses to dictate to him their wishes, the onus should be on him!

    • Ramos is a marcos crony first and a cousin. What do you expect. Like enrile and the marcos he is a big liar in the the ssme level as the marcoses and enrile who is also a marcos crony.

      If ramos is a real officer and a gentleman he should have opposed marcos from the very start before, during and after he declared martial law. But he didnt do anything,why because first he is afraid of marcos second he knew that he would be dead and she wouldnt want to miss the opportunity of being a marcos crony.

      • I cant understand why people like you edwin are so blind. Nagbabasa ka ba. Libo libo ang artikulo, mga larawan ng mga karumal dumal na ginawa ni marcos, ng kanyang militar na pinmumunuan ni enrile at ramos. Mga pinaslang, na rape, na torture at nawalang parang bula tapos ang timitingnan mo ay mga matetryal na bagay tulad ng mga tulay at gusali na ginawa sa pamamgitan ng utang na hirap na hirap tayong bayaran. Kahit pinalagyan ni marcos ng bubong ang buong pilipinas di nito kaya suklian ang pagkamatay ng isang tao sa karumal dumal na paraan
        Pero ang namatay sa ilalim ng martial law ay mahigit 3 libo, isama mo na yun nawalang parang bula, yum mga na rape,yun mga natorture. Kaya ba suklian ng mga gusali at tulay yan. Dios mio how can you be so blind. Search the name Archimedes Trajano, a Mapua student, he was killed after he questioned the competence of imee marcos in one youth convention

      • demanda mo ! dami ka atang alam .. buhay pa si imelda .. dalwang bugok na aquino na naupo wala pa rin nagawa .. baka ikaw na susi .. dami ka yatang alam e 😛

    • Edwin

      I agree with what you say “the people currently sitting in government offices are (maybe) much worst plunderers than Marcos”… but you cannot deny the fact that Marcos is the penultimate MAGNANAKAW NG KABAN NG PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT while he was in office…. and summing up all the money the plunderers now seated in the current Philippine Government have amassed so far could never reach nor exceed the $10 billion plus plus ( the exact figure we will never know … ask Lucio Tan and all Marcos’ cronies how much MONEY EACH GOT FOR SAFE KEEPING, he and other people had kept the Marcos’ money.. Senator (sic ???? ) Bongbong Marcos said so himself that his father THE GREAT PLUNDERER FERDINAND MARCOS HAD TOLD BONGBONG TO GET “OUR” MONEY FROM LUCIO TAN !!!!!! And that is only the tip of the iceberg… And that is only one of several hidden (from the rest of the Filipinos) truths about the spread of the MARCOSES’ wealth and how much it all were (at the time of their exile in 1986 … considering counting the interest rates it had accumulated thru the years to today as of this writing). How could Ferdinand Marcos afford to buy Imelda a several carat solo diamond engagement ring in 1953 costing several hundred thousand pesos then at the exchange rate of $1 USD = PHP 2.00 at such a meager salary of a Philippine Government employee in 1953 (WHERE A BOTTLE OF SOFT DRINKS WAS ONLY 3 CENTAVOS AND TEN PESOS COULD FILL YOUR TROLLEY FULL OF TODAYS GROCERIES) were it not for a fact that he was already a Commissioner of the Philipines-Japanese Reparations Commission (where I will presume he had been doing his own commissioning at the side and submitting the rest to the coffers of the Philippine Government…).

      Summing up your concerns “as if wala ng nagawang maganda si Marcos” yes he did a great service to himself and his families and his cronies high and low (remember his covert affairs with some American beauty queens or actresses as hidden concubines .. and all along we were paying from our taxes for Ferdinand Marcos’ to keep these foreign women as harem women in his stables, how some of them commented on Ferdinand Marcos’ skills in bed !!! … in Malacanang and elsewhere…maganda ang nagawa ni Marcos sa kapwa niya Pilipino… ikaw na ang mag isip kung nararapat pa ba ang mga sinasabi mo in his defence kaysa sa mas nakakaraming Filipino na nasagasaan niya in one way or another during his reign of terror during Martial Law…

      I was there in my early twenties and I know what I saw with my own eyes how during the snap elections along certain intersections of the stretch of Roxas Boulevard and the CCP complex ladies surrounded by bodyguards were handing out bundles and bundles of ONE HUNDRED PESOS NOTES ( I estimate each bundle to be not less than PHP 30,000… imagine using your ordinary hand and fingers and forming the letter “C” with them… that is how much each bundle was being distributed, and I saw it with my own eyes as I drove next to these ladies who are not even ashamed to hide them from view .. if I were to step out of my car then I would be 4 steps away from them…) being distributed to people who kept coming to collect the money to be given to certain people attending the Marcoses’ election rallies being held at that moment… I was driving along those areas so I saw for myself what was happening… maybe you were not born then so you are acutely unaware of what transpired during the Martial Law years… sayang, you consider yourself Filipino but you kept denying the truth about the REAL LIFE OF THE MARCOSES AND THEIR ILL GOTTEN WEALTH… if only someone could write a book of all the documented stories about Ferdinand Marcos and His Family and all the things he ever said and done and all that happened because of what he thought, said and did … it would be a good distinct part of the history subjects that could be taught in school so the next generations of Filipinos would never forget what Ferdinand Marcos, Imelda Marcos and his families, friends, fellow military loyalists’, cronies, those who is one way or another were documented as being the beneficiaries of his ill gotten wealth and power… remember the first thing he did was to throw the congressmen and Senators in jail (because they were the only duly elected people in power CAPABLE OF DECLARING MARCOS’ MARTIAL LAW AS ILLEGAL and THEY ALSO HAD THE POWER TO KICK MARCOS OUT OF THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES), he threatened the Judiciary into submission, shut down all forms of media except his propaganda media machinery, (remember RPN Channel 9 which became the sole media broadcasting the dictates of the Martial Law regime) ….and other presidential decrees written one after another within a span of a few days after the declaration of Martial Law to ensure that not one Filipino soul could put a challenge to his will and authority…… printed our money as if printing was the easiest way of flooding the economy without anything to back the value of those money… so many other minute stories that I guess you are sick of hearing because you still idolize the Marcoses for what they had done to you then.. too bad … and you still call yourself Filipino…
      KAAWA AWA ANG PILIPINAS KUNG IDOL PA RIN NG MGA TAO ANG MGA MARCOSES AT ANG MGA CRONIES NITO….

      JHUN

      • Add to the above comment the countless death by different levels of tortures and salvage’s of journalists, activists’, those who openly expressed opposition to the Marcos dictatorship, rape of our women who never got justice on their harrowing experiences, orders by Imelda Marcos to continue the pouring of cement above the 180 +++ workers who were buried under tons of hardened cement over their bodies instead of having the suspension of construction of the Manila Film Center inside the CPP complex AND RECOVER THOSE BODIES OF FILIPINO CONSTRUCTION WORKERS ALL BECAUSE SUCH DELAYS WOULD UNDULY INTERRUPT THE CELEBRATIONS OF THE UPCOMING MANILA FILM FESTIVAL SCHEDULED IN THE SUCCEEDING MONTHS…NO SYMPATHY FOR GIVING A DECENT BURIAL TO THOSE CONSTRUCTION WORKERS, AND SO MANY OTHER TRUE STORIES THAT I WILL PRESUME YOU ARE NOT AWARE OF… WHICH ARE MORE VALUABLE TO YOU … THE DECENT BURIAL OF THOSE WHO DIED IN THAT CONSTRUCTION ACCIDENT OR THE DELAY IN HOLDING THE MANILA FILM FESTIVAL THAT YEAR IN THE NEWLY CONSTRUCTED MANILA FILM CENTER???

        SO NOW DOES YOUR COMMENT ” KUNG MAGSALITA KAYO AS IF WALA NANG NAGAWANG MAGANDA SI MARCOS”

        WILL BE THE TRUTH … YOU WILL HAVE TO ADMIT YOU HAD FALLEN INTO THE MARCOS’ PROPAGANDA LIES PROPAGATED THROUGH THE YEARS BY HIS FOLLOWERS AND FERDINAND MARCOS’ OWN FAMILY !

        DON’T EVEN TRY TO DECEIVE YOURSELF AND BE MISINFORMED OF WHAT ARE THE TRUTH FROM WHAT ARE ALL LIES PERPETRATED BY THE MARCOSES AND HIS LIVING SUPPORTED … IT’S YOUR CALL !

        jhun briones

        • Thank you Jun Briones. I applaud your explanation and throwback on history. The one thing lacking is to translate all you said in a vernacular that most loyalists and milliniuma can understand. I am deeply sorrowed that all the presidents who came after Marcos have not been able to indoctrinate those who had been brainwashed to believe in the Marcos lies. I hope someone will take time to do this as I have been observing the dearth of materials that the masses can absorb.

        • Please do research before believing in Marcos’ Propagandas. Many have been blind followers…seek out the truth. You will learn a lot of things. Kung alam mo langat kung may kakilala ka lang na ate, kuya, nanay, tatay, lolo, lola, mga bata, mga kaibigan at ibang kamag-anak na nabiktima…baka sakali lang…iba ang magiging laman ng isip mo.

          – benjie cs

      • 1) Burying of the dead is a corporal work of mercy, but why that imeldific lady refuse to bury her dead? This dead must bury her dead!

        2) Hindi sinunod ang condition number three. Kaya kahit kelan man ay mangloloko ang mga Marcoses ano?

        3) Bakit hindi ilibing si Marcos sa kahit anong lugar sa Manila upang yung mga relatives ng mga libo-libong biktima niya noon martial law ay makaganti rin? Upang mag-spit o mag-urinate sila sa tomb niya?

        4) The Marcoses. Once a manloloko, always a manloloko ano? Kahit patay na, nakakaloko pa rin.

      • You’re like them whom you are defending–that’s the worse that can be said about a person considering what Marcos had been guilty of.

    • pasalamat ka EDWIN at buhay ka o ang iyong pamilya at hindi sila napabilang doon sa mga pinatay, pinarusahan, tinorture sa ilalim ng martial law ni ferdinand.

      naisip mo ba na baka ginawa lang pangtakip lang ang sinasabi mong magandang nagawa ni ferdinand?

      sabihin mo yang sinasabi mo sa harap ng mga pamilyang inulila ng martial law, pati na iyong hanggang sa mga oras na ito ay hindi pa nagigisnan ang bangkay ng kanilang mahal sa buhay. at saka mo sabihin na mas mahalaga ang matataas na gusali o bagong infrastraktura kaysa sa buhay ng mga nilalang.

      ipagdasal mo na hindi na muling bumalik ang martial law o kung bumalik man ay hindi ka madukot, mapahirapan, maikulong nang walang sala o paglilitis, mabura sa mundo o mawalan ng asawa o anak o magulang o kapatid.

    • Pagnanakaw?? Yan ang legacy ng mga Marcoses dahil sila ang nag-uso niyan!! Bakit sa palagay mo hanggang ngayon ay mayaman pa rin? Hindi na nila kayang gastusin ang kinarakot nila at walang kahihiyang ipagyabang ang katusuhan at kasinungalingan nila hanggang ngayon, nagmamalinis pa rin, kasi kaya nilang suhulan ang lahat ng kakampi at magiging kakampi nila!!
      Sana ni-recycle na lang nila yung kinurakot sa economiya ng Pilipinas sa pagtatayo sana ng mga pabrika at pinakinabangan ang talento at kasipagan ng Pilipino, di sana hindi naghihirap ang bayan ngayon at di nauso ang OFW na dahilan sa maraming nasisirang tahanan sa kakulangan ng gabay sa mga kabataan sa nag-iisang magulang na naiwan!

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