Philippine leader steers clear of Marcos burial controversy

Feb 16, 2011, 9:24 GMT

Manila - Philippine President Benigno Aquino III said Wednesday he does not want to be the one to decide whether to bury the body of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in a heroes' cemetery.

Aquino, whose parents fought the dictator, said he would instead be assigning a government official to study the issue that has divided the country for decades.

'Whatever I say will be biased, so I'm thinking of inhibiting myself from deciding on the matter,' he said. 'I have a government official who I will task to study the issue.'

Aquino's father, a former senator and staunch rival of Marcos, was assassinated in 1983, allegedly on the dictator's orders.

Three years later, his mother, late former president Corazon Aquino, led a four-day 'people power' uprising that toppled Marcos' 20-year dictatorship.

Marcos died in 1989 in self-imposed exile in Hawaii. His body was flown back to the Philippines in 1993 and has since been encased in a refrigerated crypt in his northern hometown of Batac.

Senator Ferdinand Marcos Junior, the only son of the late dictator, renewed the family's appeal to bury his father at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes' Cemetery) ahead of the 25th anniversary of the 1986 uprising later this month.

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