MANILA, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Vicitms of the martial law imposed by former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos in 1972 asked the Supreme Court on Monday to stop the government's plan to bury him in the country's heroes' cemetery.
In a statement, the Samahan ng Mga Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detention at Aresto or SELDA, an organization of martial law victims, said they filed the formal petition to ask the court to issue a temporary restraining order "to disallow" the burial of Marcos in the hallowed cemetery.
The group said in their petition that Marcos "is not entitled to any hero's burial," adding that he "overly abused" the presidency during his rule and faked his military record.
The petition also cited the study conducted by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines belying the claim of Marcos of being a World War II hero and bemedalled soldier.
"The interment of the remains of Marcos at the heroes' cemetery with honors that supposedly befit only Filipino heroes with overall unblemished integrity and dignity is contrary to the constitution," the group said.
They also cited a 1992 agreement between the Philippine government represented by then President Fidel Ramos and the Marcos family that Marcos' remains will be buried in their hometown in Ilocos Norte, a province north of Manila.
"To abandon the agreement, to reboot the entire process, exhume his remains and allow his burial at (the heroes' cemetery) is to relive the terror and horrors of his victims who have, until now, not been given justice," the group said.
It added, "While his victims will be forgotten, Marcos will be remembered as a president given a hero's burial in violation of the law and even their contractual commitment with the Philippine government."
They said that burying Marcos in the heroes' cemetery "will not achieve the purpose of closure espoused or accepted by others."
The filing of the petition came a day after at least 1,000 martial law victims and anti-Marcos activists held a protest rally to stress that Marcos is not a hero and to denounce President Rodrigo Duterte's decision to bury Marcos in the heroes' cemetery.
Duterte, a friend of the Marcoses, has allowed the burial of Marcos in the heroes' cemetery, stirring up an old debate on whether or not Marcos deserves the honor.
Marcos, who ruled the country for two decades, died in exile Hawaii in 1989 three years after the Marcos family fled the Philippines following a popular uprising that ousted the dictator in 1986 when millions of Filipinos, backed by the military, took to the streets to protest his abuses.
The Marcos family has long been dogged by accusations that the former president oversaw massive human rights abuses and plundered billions of dollars from the state.
His body, which was brought back to the Philippines in 1993 after he died in Hawaii in 1989, is now on display inside a glass box in an air-conditioned mausoleum beside the family's ancestral home in Batac, north of Manila.
The Marcos family, pleading for an "honorable burial," had lobbied the government for Marcos' remains to be interred at the heroes' cemetery in Manila. But the anti-Marcos and human rights groups had opposed the plan saying the disgraced leader does not deserve a military honor and a plot in the hallowed ground.
