Manila: President Benigno Aquino was criticised by the family of former strongman Ferdinand Marcos, for saying with finality it would be the ‘height of injustice' to allow a hero's burial for the former strongman who was ousted by a people-backed military mutiny in 1986.

"If you are asking me if we are allowing a state burial or any burial wherein the state will render some honours... I think you cannot forget what happened during the martial law years [of Marcos from 1972 to 1980] with the totality of his public life," said Aquino during a conference with members of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP).

"It really would be the height of injustice to render any honours to the person who was the direct mastermind of all of this suffering. I think I will not, I am not sanctioning, not under my watch, a burial for the late president Marcos," Aquino said.

Wrong message

"It serves as a wrong message, the honours given to others of similar nature to render the same to someone who has inflicted such suffering on our people after having promised to serve them."

Noting the fate of the rights victims of Marcos during the martial law years in the Philippines, Aquino said: "It was recently called to my attention again that we have so many victims of the martial law years who have not gotten the recognition formally from our government that they were victims."

"They have not been accorded an apology. The compensation bill [to serve them] is still pending."

At the same time, Aquino expressed apology to vice-president Jejomar Binay whom he had tasked last February to study the request of Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for the burial of his father at the National Heroes Cemetery.

Studies showed, Binay said, that the Marcos burial must be done in his hometown in Ilocos Norte, northern Luzon, and should be accompanied by full military honours.

Senator Marcos was prompted to request his father's burial after former chief of staff and cabinet member Angelo Reyes was buried at the National Heroes Cemetery in February, following a suicide during a break in a senate inquiry on corrupt practices in the military.

Dismayed at President Aquino's final decision, former first lady and now congresswoman Imelda Marcos said it was a continuation of the prejudices of his mother, former President Corazon Aquino, against the Marcoses.