Interring of the former Philippine president's remains
The burial of Ferdinand Marcos, a former Philippine President who ruled as a dictator for 21 years, took place on November 18, 2016, at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (lit. 'Cemetery of (the) Heroes') in Fort Andres Bonifacio, Taguig, Metro Manila, Philippines. Ferdinand Marcos had been elected the 10th President of the Philippines in 1965, but declared Martial Law in 1972 before his final constitutionally allowed term was over, holding on to power until his overthrow by the People Power Revolution in 1986.
The burial of Marcos, who died in 1989, at the Libingan ng mga Bayani has been a controversial issue as objectors, including victims of human rights violations during the dictator's brutal period of rule and participants of the People Power Revolution, have opposed attempts to bury Marcos citing the rampant corruption and cronyism of his administration; its practice of silencing dissent through arrests, disappearances, and torture by the police and military; and his family's infamous kleptocracy amounting to an estimated US$ worth of stolen money that had earned Ferdinand and his wife Imelda. Opinion on his burial was split: 50% of the 1,800 respondents of a survey conducted by SWS in February 2016 said Marcos "was worthy to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani" while the other half rejected a hero's burial.
There were conflicting claims on where the deceased Marcos wished to be buried. Former Interior Secretary Rafael Alunan III, one of the signatories of an agreement to move Marcos' body from Hawaii to the Philippines during the term of then-President Fidel V. Ramos, said that Marcos wished to be buried beside his mother Josefa in his hometown in Batac, Ilocos Norte, while his wife Imelda Marcos said that his wish was to be buried in Manila insisting that he should be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
Former presidents Corazon Aquino, who had ousted Marcos during the People Power Revolution, and Fidel V. Ramos had opposed moves to bury Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani during their respective terms, while former president Joseph Estrada attempted to bury Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani but later canceled the burial. President Benigno Aquino III, Corazon Aquino's son, decided not to allow the body of Marcos to be buried at the cemetery. His successor Rodrigo Duterte, during the campaign period and debates as well as when he had won the presidential election, repeatedly asserted his plans for the burial of the remains, claiming that the act was in accordance with the existing laws of the Philippines and insisting that the burial would be an instrument for the beginning of "nation-wide healing". The plan was met with criticism due to its perceived historical revisionism. After it was delayed on September 13, 2016, then again on October 18 that same year, the Supreme Court permitted, on November 8, Ferdinand Marcos' burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. The burial of Marcos, with military honors, was conducted in a private ceremony on November 18, 2016 and resulted in nationwide protests by groups, sectors, and personalities opposing the burial of Marcos at the state cemetery.
Background.
Transfer of Marcos' body from Hawaii.
After Ferdinand Marcos died in 1989, his family attempted to bring his remains from Hawaii to the Philippines but then-President Corazon Aquino imposed a ban against the entry of Marcos' remains into the country. This was lifted on October 9, 1991, by Aquino on the condition that Marcos' burial would not be used for political purposes and on the condition that the body of Marcos be flown directly to Laoag. Executive Secretary Franklin Drilon said that a "hero's burial" would be allowed if held in Marcos' home province instead of Manila. Imelda Marcos, the wife of Ferdinand Marcos, opposed the move saying that the dying wish of her husband was to be buried in Manila. In January 1992, the Philippine government stated that it may not oppose the burial of Marcos anywhere in Metro Manila provided that Marcos' body was flown into the country after the 1992 Philippine election in May. The Marcos family opposed the condition and was waiting for a ruling of the Supreme Court at that time regarding their petition to bury Ferdinand Marcos as soon as possible.
The transfer of Marcos' body would not be done until the administration of President Fidel V. Ramos. It was during Ramos' term that a memorandum of agreement was made between the government and the Marcos family in 1992.
There were four conditions agreed by both parties:
According to Rafael Alunan III, former Interior Secretary and one of the signatories of the agreement, the third clause was agreed upon due to "wounds [that] were still fresh in the minds of many people" and to avoid potential instability. He also said that the former President Marcos wanted to be buried beside his mother in Batac, Ilocos Norte. Also according to Alunan, after the signing of the agreement, Imelda Marcos crossed out the burial clause and wrote in that Marcos was to be "temporarily interred" instead of being buried in Ilocos Norte. Alunan said that the terms of agreement could not be changed after it was signed but Mrs. Marcos insisted and came up with a new agreement paper with the changed clause. The revised paper was not signed by the government.
It was on September 7, 1993, that the body of Ferdinand Marcos was flown into the Philippines. From Hawaii the body was flown to Guam then to Laoag in Ilocos Norte. The body of Marcos was not buried but was instead preserved in a refrigerated crypt hosted inside the Ferdinand E. Marcos Presidential Center. In Honolulu, Hawaii, Marcos' body was also stored in a refrigerated crypt.
Cancelled 1998 Libingan ng mga Bayani burial.
Ramos' successor Joseph Estrada attempted to organize a burial of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Then President-elect Estrada had negotiations with Marcos' wife Imelda who initially also demanded state honors for the burial but later agreed to a burial without state honors. It was determined that Marcos would be buried on July 11, 1998. The planned burial of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani still received opposition even after state honors were not to be included in the planned burial. Former President Corazon Aquino was among those who opposed the move. Estrada remained firm on his decision until July 1998 when Estrada decided against the plan amidst public opposition saying that it would be better if the Marcos family agreed that Ferdinand Marcos be buried in Batac to put an end to "bitter differences" and give rest to "various emotions and sentiments that flared up".
2011 Batac burial recommendation.
In April 2011, then President Benigno Aquino III tasked then Vice President Jejomar Binay to study whether to bury Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani or not. The Office of the Vice President received 3,000 responses from various political parties, sectors, organizations, and members of the public on the issue. Binay recommended the burial of Marcos in his hometown of Batac with full military honors. Aquino did not act on the recommendation.
Presidency of Rodrigo Duterte and plans for the burial.
Rodrigo Duterte supported the burial of Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, even before he assumed presidency and expressed this stance at his presidential campaign in the 2016 elections. Duterte has expressed that a burial of Marcos at the site would commence the "healing" of the Philippines and pointed out Marcos' idealism and vision for the country through his projects which "stood the test of time" and that Marcos' dictatorship "remains to be debated". Duterte previously stated that Marcos could have been the best president if not for the abuses during the Martial law period under Marcos' watch. At the Visayas leg of the PiliPinas Debates 2016, Duterte and fellow candidate Jejomar Binay expressed their support for a Marcos burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
2016 burial.
Announcement and rationale.
On August 7, 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte gave the order to bury former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani saying that Marcos was qualified to be buried at the cemetery due to being a "former president and a soldier". Duterte said he was open to demonstrations against the burial plan but insisted that the former president was qualified to be buried at the cemetery. He also added that the burial date may be moved to September 11 which was the birthday of the deceased president.
Amidst criticism that Marcos did not deserve to be buried at the cemetery, Duterte said that burying Marcos at the site did not equate to Marcos being a "hero in the true sense of the word". He pointed out that former soldiers and presidents are allowed to be buried at the cemetery and that he would be violating the law if he did not push through with the burial and added that the previous administrations should have passed a law to bar Marcos from being buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Duterte said he doesn't care about the dispute regarding the authenticity of Marcos' war medals and the non-appearance of Marcos' alleged World War II service in United States records. While at Peru attending the 2016 APEC Summit during the burial day, he even said of Marcos: “Whether or not he performed worse or better, there is no study, there is no movie about it. It's just the challenges and allegations of the other side, which is not enough.” These insinuations however were disputed by many individuals and organizations - providing an exhaustive list of books, movies among other related media, about Marcos and/or Martial Law.
"Ilibing Na" ("Bury now") PR campaign.
In 2018, Dr. Jason Cabañes of the University of Leeds School of Media and Communication and Dr. Jonathan Corpus Ong of the University of Massachusetts Amherst released a study of organized disinformation efforts in the Philippines, titled "Architects of Networked Disinformation: Behind the Scenes of Troll Accounts and Fake News Production in the Philippines." Based on participant observation in Facebook community groups and Twitter accounts, as well as key informant interviews with 20 "disinformation architects," conducted from December 2016 to December 2017, the study described a "professionalized and hierarchized group of political operators who design disinformation campaigns, mobilize click armies, and execute innovative “digital black ops” and “signal scrambling” techniques for any interested political client." This network had “ad and PR strategists at the top.” 
Ong and Cabañes' 2018 study uncovered the existence of a "Ilibing Na" ("Bury now") campaign designed to create public support for a hero's burial for Ferdinand Marcos using "diversionary tactics to elude allegations of human rights violations and corruption during the term of Ferdinand Marcos" and launching "digital black ops that targeted prominent critics” of the Marcoses, particularly vice president Leni Robredo."
The study also revealed that these networks had previously launched a "personal branding" campaign meant to "tell a revisionist account of the 20-year Marcos regime as 'the golden age of the Philippines'" using such tools as YouTube videos "in a bid to restore the political luster of the Marcos family."
Supreme Court decision.
Marcos was originally scheduled to be buried on September 13 then October 18 after the oral arguments on petitions to stop the burial. Eventually, on November 8, the Supreme Court of the Philippines allowed Marcos to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani with the votes of 9–5, with one abstention dismissing the status quo ante imposed to block attempts to bury Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
Concurring opinion.
The concurring judges said that the Supreme Court cannot decide on the matter since it is a political question which was deemed not justiciable. They argue that President Duterte did not abuse his discretion when he allowed the burial of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. It was noted that the petitioners failed to specify a specific law that was allegedly violated by proceeding the burial.
The majority of the judges disagreed with the dissenting opinion that Marcos is disqualified to be buried at the said site due to Marcos' ouster following the People Power Revolution, which the dissenters consider as an act of Marcos being dishonorably discharged. It was noted that while Marcos was also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the position is not a military position and the particular clause in the 1987 Constitution which gave