NAMES IN THE NEWS : Marcos a ‘Pitiful Sight,’ Priest Says

A Filipino priest who helped carry the sacrament for the dying to ousted Philippine ruler Ferdinand E. Marcos said today that Marcos was a pathetic sight in a Honolulu hospital.

“He was a pitiful sight,” Msgr. Achilles Dakay said in a telephone interview from his Roman Catholic archdiocese in central Cebu City. Dakay accompanied Philippine Cardinal Ricardo Vidal, who celebrated Mass for Marcos at the Honolulu hospital where he has been confined with lung problems since January.

“Mrs. Marcos showed us his legs. It was all bones. He is very, very sick. His face was bloated and tubes were all over his body,” Dakay said. He said there were periods when Marcos could talk briefly and times “when he would open his mouth and nothing would come out.”