From: news@netnews.upenn.edu (USENET News System)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.filipino
Subject: Imelda Demands State Funeral for Ferdinand
Date: 15 Oct 92 15:34:32 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.filipino
Organization: University of Pennsylvania


	LAOAG, Philippines (UPI) -- Former first lady Imelda Marcos vowed
Thursday not to bring home the body of her late husband from Hawaii
until the Manila government agrees to grant the ousted dictator a state
funeral.
	Her comments, during President Fidel Ramos's first trip to the
Marcos' political stronghold 250 miles north of Manila since winning
office in May, dampened chances the body could be returned within a
court-imposed deadline of Nov. 1.
	Ramos has agreed to simple military honors for the late president but
ruled out state honors and barred the body from the capital for fear of
political turmoil.
	``We're going to do it (the burial) right,'' Mrs. Marcos told
reporters after welcoming Ramos with a kiss at the airport in Laoag
City, capital of Ilocos Norte province.
	``Whatever it is, the important thing is we have to do it right. If
we have to wait, we will wait.
	``What we're asking for is what is due to him as a president for 20
years,'' said Mrs. Marcos, referring to full state and military honors
traditionally given to former Philippine leaders.
	In Manila, Lawyers for the government and victims of human rights
abuses during Marcos'rule agreed Thursday to settle their conflicting
claims on the assets left behind by the late president.
	Government efforts to recover billions of dollars Marcos allegedly
plundered from the country were complicated by a U.S. court decision
finding the deposed leader guilty of torture and other atrocities during
his martial law regime.
	The verdict, reached last month in Honolulu, Hawaii, paved the way
for 10,000 victims of human rights abuses to seek millions of dollars in
damages from Marcos' estate and allowed them to also lay claim on the
family's assets.
	A separate trial is needed to determine the amount of damages to be
given each victim of the atrocities, which included rape, torture,
summary execution and forced disappearance during the period from 1972
to 1986.
	The Presidential Commission on Good Government, which is tasked to
track down the stolen billions, initially said the human rights victims
were not entitled to the fortune because most of Marcos' money was
obtained illegally and was, therefore, not part of his rightful estate.
	But Romeo Capulong, a lawyer helping the human rights victims, told
reporters after meetings with a congressional committee and PCCG
officials that the two sides had agreed to compromise. ``I think we can
arrive at a settlement,'' he said.
	During his visit, Ramos urged unity and promised to bring prosperity
to the Ilocos region, the birthplace of Marcos, whom he served as head
of the national police then helped depose in a 1986 civilian-backed
military revolt.
	``We are here to unite, to consolidate and to put our act together so
that we can look forward with a clear vision no longer obscured or
disturbed by political partisanship,'' Ramos said in a speech before
students.
	He also ordered the release of millions of dollars for the
construction of roads, bridges and school buildings in the province.
	Ramos, Marcos' second cousin, avoided mentioning the issue of Marcos'
burial in any of his speeches. But during a news conference before he
returned to Manila, Ramos indicated his decision on the Marcos body was
only temporary.
	``The important thing that the government is trying to attain here is
that it's a matter of taking the step by step process,'' he said. ``In
the meantime, what is important is to solve one problem which is
bringing back the remains of the former president to his home province.''
	Marcos died in exile in 1989 in Hawaii, where his body remains in
temporary storage.
	The Marcoses want the remains to lie in state at the presidential
palace. But many Filipinos oppose this, saying he led his family and
friends in plundering billions of dollars from the country during his
20-year rule.
	Ilocos was pampered by Marcos during his regime. Former president
Corazon Aquino never visited the province during her six-year term.