Dozens of organizations and individuals, including survivors of martial law, opposed the reported plan to bury Juan Ponce Enrile’s remains at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB) on November 22.

In a signed statement dated November 20, the groups declared that Enrile is not a hero and that his crimes should be remembered.

“Enrile was no ordinary technocrat or politician,” the statement said. “His sins against the Filipino nation and his legacy of impunity had inflicted an immeasurable damage to so many of our countrymen.”

Enrile is the notorious architect of Ferdinand Marcos Sr’s martial law regime. He was among the so-called “Rolex 12” who helped draft Proclamation 1081.

He was responsible for numerous massacres under martial law. These include the brutal killing of 45 residents in Barangay Sag-od, Las Navas, Northern Samar on September 15, 1981.

He and his logging companies stripped vast forests across various parts of the country. He was an accomplice of Marcos Sr’s crony, Eduardo Cojuangco, in looting billions from the public treasury.

He played a major role in the electoral fraud of 1986 that triggered the EDSA uprising. He and his then chief, Fidel Ramos, switched sides when they saw that the dictator they had served for 14 years could no longer hold onto power. Despite this, he repeatedly attempted to topple the civilian government of Corazon Aquino.

When he became a senator, he was convicted of plundering millions of pesos from the public funds.

“Enrile’s burial the LNMB…will send the wrong message: that the corrupt and the powerful can always escape punishment,” the signed statement said. “That murder and corruption would be rebranded in death as ‘heroism’—while so many of their victims continue to endure pain and injustice.”

The statement called the scheme “a continuing act of impunity.”

“Enrile is not a hero. He never was, and he never will be,” it said.

Signatories to the statement included Project Gunita, Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law, Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto, Karapatan, Bayan, Partido Manggagawa, Tanggol Kasaysayan, and Tindig Pilipinas.