Estrada permits Marcos burial

Estrada permits Marcos burial

MANILA (Reuters): Philippine President-elect Joseph Estrada said yesterday he would allow late dictator Ferdinand Marcos to be buried in Manila's Heroes Cemetery because it was time to entomb the past.

"If we can forgive the Japanese who raped many of our women, why can't we forgive President Marcos for all his sins, if ever there are any?" Estrada told reporters.

Marcos' remains are kept in an air-conditioned, glass crypt in his hometown of Batac, north of Manila.

His body was brought back to the Philippines in 1992 from Hawaii where he had fled in 1986 when he was toppled in a popular uprising.