Three Months Later, Mother of Marcos Is Still Unburied

More than three months after her death, the body of Ferdinand E. Marcos’ mother is still unburied as her son’s dwindling band of followers maintains a wake in hopes that the government will allow him to return for her funeral.

But many civic leaders here say that the time has come to place the body of Josefa Edralin-Marcos in the marble tomb prepared for her in the family cemetery in a swamp on the eastern edge of this town.

Edralin-Marcos died May 4 at age 95, and her body was transferred from Manila to the Marcos ancestral home in Batac.

Family members and Marcos supporters say no date for the burial will be set until President Corazon Aquino allows her deposed predecessor to return or until Marcos orders the interment.

Aquino has refused to allow Marcos back from his exile in Hawaii for security reasons. Marcos has lived in Hawaii since a civilian-military uprising toppled his regime in February, 1986.

Whatever sympathy Marcos may have hoped to generate by his appeal to come home appears to have dissipated in the months after his mother’s death.

Filipino newspapers rarely mention the extended wake. In a rare exception, the Manila Chronicle recently suggested an epitaph: “Here lies Dona Josefa Marcos, died at age 95, buried at age 96.”