Former President Ferdinand Marcos Hero's Burial

The Supreme court of the Philippines has dismissed the case that wants to block the hero's burial for former Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos.

In an unanimous decision 9-5, with one justice abstaining, the Supreme Court rejected arguments that Marcos was unfit to be re-interred in the National Heroes' Cemetery in Manila.

The decision was met with great pleasure by the supporters of the former president who had gathered outside the court, and outrage from some handful protesters opposing it.

Shortly after his election in May, President Rodrigo Duterte announced plans to move the late dictator from his current resting place in a mausoleum in the family's stronghold of Ilocos Norte, in the Philippines' northeast.


Ferdinand Marcos' daughter Imee speaks at a rally in support of the re-internment in October.

Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes inhibited from the case, reducing to 14 the number of justices who voted.

Voted in favor of giving Marcos a hero's burial:

Associate Justices Arturo Brion, Presbitero Velasco Jr, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Mariano del Castillo, Jose Perez, Teresita de Castro, Jose Mendoza, and Estela Perlas-Bernabe .

Dissented:

Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, together with Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, and Associate Justices Marvic Leonen, Francis Jardeleza, and Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa

Reyes has not cited specific reasons for his recusement but it was he who administered the oath of President Rodrigo Duterte last June. He was Duterte's fraternity brother at the San Beda College of Law and a former lawyer of the family of former president Benigno Aquino III.

source:
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/07/asia/philippines-ferdinand-marcos-burial-protest/