Families of Martial Law victims, led by former human rights commission chairman Loretta Ann Rosales, urged the Supreme Court to order the government to stop the burial of former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, or Heroes Cemetery.

Some of the petitioners said they experienced sexual abuse from their captors in a press conference on Friday.

“To accord him the pomp and pageantry of a hero’s burial is to dishonor the victims of murder, summary execution, forced disappearance and massacres whose only memorials are the grieving loving ones they left behind,” said Rosales, who read from a statement.

Barry Gutierrez, the lawyer for the petitioners, said this is the third petition filed before the Supreme Court this week.

The Supreme Court consolidated this petition and two others later in the day. The High Tribunal said the government has to comment to the three petitions on Monday, August 22.

A preliminary conference of the petitions will be held on Monday to thresh out the issues covered in the oral arguments set on August 24. Robina Asido