In an attempt to end years of controversy over her late husband’s final resting place, former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos has arranged for her husband’s burial on the family’s property. Her decision is the latest move in the ongoing debate surrounding Ferdinand Marcos’s burial since his death in exile in 1989.
“He will be buried among nature, which is God’s gift,” Imelda Marcos told reporters on Sept. 11. “We identified the place because it’s not part of controversy. He deserves it. We don’t want to cause any more controversies.”
Her announcement follows an unsuccessful attempt earlier this year to inter her late husband, a decorated World War II veteran and former commander-in-chief, at the National Heroes’ Cemetery in Manila. Critics opposed the plans, stating the country was still suffering the effects of the 20-year Marcos dictatorship and that his burial on the grounds would be inappropriate.
While the late dictator’s remains are stored inside a refrigerated crypt in Ilocos Norte, his daughter Imee Marcos said the family has selected a green hilltop on the side of the Cordillera mountain range.
“It should be coming home for my dad because this is his hometown,” Imee Marcos said as the family greeted visitors on what would have been Mr Marcos’s 89th birthday. She added the planned burial ground includes a visitors’ center, a viewing deck and a sundial. The grounds would include seven gardens, such as a “healing garden” and a “unity garden”, because Mr Marcos considered seven to be a magic number.
“There should be an underground library where he would be buried with his favorite things. My dad was an extremely modest man so we’ll only put a cross, a spire,” Imee Marcos, an opposition House representative, said.
Since the fall of the Marcos regime in 1986 following the first “people power” revolution, the Marcoses still remain popular in the family’s home province of Ilocos Norte. But for the most part, the Marcoses have drawn the condemnation of many, including thousands of former political prisoners from the Marcos years awaiting compensation for alleged human rights violations. The first couple also allegedly looted billions from the nation’s coffers and seized private land and businesses for personal use.
After the dictator’s death in Hawaii in 1989, his body was flown back to the Philippines in 1993. The preserved body is on display inside a glass coffin at his northern hometown of Batac.
In 1995, about 10,000 Filipinos won a class-action lawsuit inside a US court against the Marcos estate. The plaintiffs charged the Marcos dictatorship with torture, execution and mysterious disappearances. The award has since nearly doubled to $4 billion although a protracted appeals process has meant that no money has been disbursed so far.
