Manila Reacts Quietly to Marcos’ Burial Ban

As buses and trucks poured thick fumes into the muggy night air and lightning crackled overhead, Manolito Perio stood crying beside seven flickering candles and a dog-eared portrait of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos.

“Cory Aquino is not my president,” the 37-year-old jeepney driver said, wiping tears from his face. “Ferdinand Marcos is still my president. He will always be my president.”

More than 1,500 equally fervent Marcos supporters gathered quietly with Perio in a candlelight vigil Friday night outside Camp Crame, the national constabulary headquarters, but they were the exception the day after the 72-year-old deposed leader’s death in Honolulu.

Rallies Fail to Materialize

At least four separate announced rallies and marches to protest President Corazon Aquino’s ban on burying Marcos in the Philippines failed to materialize. Instead, most Manila residents reacted to the news with sympathy, relief or indifference.

“I don’t care about Marcos,” said Josie Bocateja, a 25-year-old waitress. “Now he is dead. That is the end of Marcos for me.”

Although hard-core supporters said they would keep the vigil and organize protests until Marcos’ body is returned, the former president’s older brother, Dr. Pacifico Marcos, said he expects his brother to be buried “in a few days or so” in Hawaii.

He also said that the body of their 95-year-old mother, Josefa, which has lain in a glass-topped casket for 16 months at the family home in Batac, 230 miles north of Manila, will be now be laid to rest. The family had refused to bury the embalmed corpse until the exiled Marcos could return.

“My brother’s body will be buried in a few days or so, and my mother’s body will also be buried, probably on the same day,” a red-eyed Dr. Marcos said after a special morning Mass at the Santuario de San Jose Church in suburban Manila. About 200 mourners, including several former Marcos cabinet members, offered condolences and prayers.

Controversy Over Burial

The emotional and politically charged question of where Marcos, who ruled this Roman Catholic nation of 60 million people for two decades, will be buried is making him as controversial in death as in life.

Aquino, who took office after a “people power” uprising forced Marcos to flee to Hawaii in February, 1986, said Friday that she has “forgiven” Marcos for his abuses, but repeated her refusal to let him be buried in Philippine soil.

“We believe that allowing the remains of the late president to be brought back here would cause some instability and would discourage very much investors and tourists from coming here, plus also dividing the people,” she said at a news conference at Malacanang Palace.

Aquino ordered flags on government buildings lowered to half-staff for three days and met with her security advisers and military officials to discuss the situation. Security was tightened at radio and TV stations, power plants, telephone exchanges and other key installations in the Manila area.

Aquino’s government has accused Marcos and his wife of stealing up to $5 billion before he was ousted. Legal problems in the Philippines and in Switzerland have prevented the government from recovering most of the money, but Mateo Caparas, head of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, said he hopes that “cronies” who were afraid of talking while Marcos was alive will come forward now “for the sake of the nation.”

Filipinos Evenly Split

Aquino said recent surveys showed Filipinos almost evenly split on the question of allowing Marcos to return. “It is really a very divisive issue,” she said.

Interviews with several dozen Manila residents made that division clear Friday. In Lederiza, one of Manila’s largest and oldest slums, Electa Dorimon, 39, sat in her one-room dirt-floored home and said it was the final injustice for Marcos to be buried in exile.

“He is a Filipino, not an American,” she said.

Iris Reyes, 23 and unemployed, agreed. “This is his country,” she said. “He should be buried in his hometown.”

But others in the muddy warren of tin-roofed shanties were nervous. Lito Cruz, a 40-year-old office worker, warned that “something bad will happen” if Marcos’ body is returned. “I feel for him, but I am afraid,” she said.

‘Big Trouble’ Predicted

Amy Gutierrez, 24 and unemployed, said “it’s better” to keep Marcos’ body in Hawaii. “If he comes back, you know what will happen,” she said. “Trouble. Big trouble. The Marcos loyalists will make big trouble for everybody.”

Some loyalists promised trouble if the body is not returned. “We are the silent majority and we are not making any trouble,” Neil Punagan, a 30-year-old engineer, said angrily at the evening vigil. “But if Mr. Marcos is not allowed home, then there will be trouble.”

Although Marcos left a legacy of poverty, plundering and martial law, many complained that Aquino’s government is no better. “It’s just the same game with a different set of players,” said Reggie Aspiras, a 21-year-old student at Assumption College.