Marilyn Cahatol

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile reviews documents before the start of the sectoral meeting with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. at the Malacañang Palace on Tuesday, February 13, 2024. Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Enrile will celebrate his 100th birthday on Feb 14. (KJ ROSALES/PPA POOL)

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ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/176378112614220240213-malacanang-enrile-PPA--11.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile reviews documents before the start of the sectoral meeting with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. at the Malacañang Palace on Tuesday, February 13, 2024. Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Enrile will celebrate his 100th birthday on Feb 14. (KJ ROSALES/PPA POOL) "/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile reviews documents before the start of the sectoral meeting with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. at the Malacañang Palace on Tuesday, February 13, 2024. Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Enrile will celebrate his 100th birthday on Feb 14.<em> (KJ ROSALES/PPA POOL) </em></span></span></span></div><p>MANILA — Human rights groups and individuals this week aired their opposition to burying the remains of Juan Ponce Enrile at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City, saying the longtime politician does not deserve a hero&#x27;s burial for atrocities committed during Martial Law, which he implemented.</p><p>“Like his master Ferdinand Marcos Sr., Juan Ponce Enrile will be bestowed an undeserved hero’s burial,” the Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainee Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA), a group for former political detainees, said in a Facebook post.</p><p>Enrile, a key figure during the 21-year rule of Ferdinand Marcos Sr., died on Nov. 13 and is to be buried at LNMB on Saturday, Nov. 22.</p><p>The group said up to 70,000 people were illegally detained, 35,000 were tortured, 3,000 were killed extrajudicially and at least 700 were forcibly disappeared under Enrile’s watch as defense minister to the elder Marcos.</p><p>The government Human Rights Victims Claimants Board recognized 11,103 victims of rights abuses between 1972 and 1986, including 2,326 killed or disappeared, 1,467 tortured and 1,239 arbitrarily detained.</p><p>They said the late politician “did not express a shred of remorse for these atrocities,” but “justified Martial Law, rationalized his role in Marcos’ 14-year authoritarian rule and maintained a conspicuous silence on the bureaucratic plunder that marked the martial law years and from which he benefited immensely.”</p><p>“Enrile’s burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani is less a matter of his place of interment than the vicious rewriting of history,” they said.</p><p>Enrile&#x27;s colleagues and mentees have praised him for his wisdom and patience, with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. saying he was &quot;<a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/11/21/marcos-jr-honors-tito-johnny-enrile-1718">a constant fixture in my life</a>&quot; when his father was president, and later when he became a senator.</p><p>Marcos Jr. later tapped Enrile to be his chief presidential legal counsel, the post that the centenarian held until his death.</p><p>In a separate but related joint statement, human rights activists, student bodies, journalists, workers and individuals said Enrile has never paid or apologized for the abuses of Martial Law.</p><p>They also called out Enrile for his alleged orchestration of the September 22, 1972 ambush on himself that allowed Marcos Sr. to impose Martial Law, several massacres during this period, killings, the issuance of the former dictator&#x27;s “coercive” decrees, alleged cheating in the 1986 snap election between Marcos Sr. and former president Corazon Aquino, as well as his role in coup attempts against the Aquino administration.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/11/13/enrile-s-life-and-legacy-in-his-own-words-1755"><strong>Juan Ponce Enrile&#x27;s life and legacy, in his own words</strong></a></div><p>The joint statement said Enrile’s burial in the LNMB will send the message that “crime pays, that the corrupt and the powerful can always escape punishment, that murder and corruption would be rebranded in death as ‘heroism’—while so many of their victims continue to endure pain and injustice.”</p><p>“Let us make this clear: the burial of Juan Ponce Enrile at the Libingan ng mga Bayani is historical distortion. It is a lie that, yet again, whitewashes the crimes of the Marcos Sr. dictatorship,” they said.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/11/13/martial-law-survivors-no-tears-for-enrile-2007"><strong>Martial Law survivors: ‘No tears’ for Enrile</strong></a></div><p><strong></strong>Marcos Sr.&#x27;s remains were buried at the LNMB in November 2016 despite broad opposition and sparked protests as well as concerns about &quot;whitewashing&quot; the Martial Law period.<strong></strong></p><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO:</strong></div><div style="text-align:center"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wfGdxaQ-juI?si=KaanbPIOzYTBhO0j" title="YouTube video player" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><br/></div>

<p>Human rights groups and individuals this week aired their opposition to burying the remains of Juan Ponce Enrile at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City, saying the longtime politician does not deserve a hero's burial for atrocities committed during Martial Law, which he implemented.</p>

Human rights groups and individuals this week aired their opposition to burying the remains of Juan Ponce Enrile at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City, saying the longtime politician does not deserve a hero's burial for atrocities committed during Martial Law, which he implemented.

'No hero’s honor for Enrile’: Groups oppose burial at Libingan ng mga Bayani

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'No hero’s honor for Enrile’: Groups oppose burial at Libingan ng mga Bayani

Marilyn Cahatol,

ABS-CBN News

Published Nov 22, 2025 11:50 AM PHT

|

Updated Nov 22, 2025 12:12 PM PHT

Read More:

Juan Ponce Enrile

Libingan ng mga Bayani

Martial Law

dictatorship

Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

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