MANILA - Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. on Tuesday expressed gratitude to incoming president Rodrigo Duterte for favoring the burial of his father, the late President Ferdinand Marcos, at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

In a statement, the senator noted that it has always been the position of his family that it is his father's right to be buried at the Heroes' Cemetery, being a former soldier and president.

The body of the late dictator, who died in exile in the US in 1989, remains in a glass coffin in a mausoleum in his hometown in Ilocos Norte.

READ: Bongbong: My dad deserves Libingan ng mga Bayani burial

"Our campaign has always been towards achieving unity to move the country forward. And it is this kind of pronouncement that we hope could end the decades of divisiveness that have been imposed upon us by our leaders," the younger Marcos said.

"We would like to thank President Duterte for this kind, rightful and healing gesture," he added.

In a press conference on Monday, the Davao City mayor pronounced that he will allow the burial of the Marcos patriarch at the Libingan ng mga Bayani "not because he is a hero...but because he was a Filipino soldier."

"Yang issue na yan has long created a division amongst our people. Almost all of Ilocanos, naghihinanakit talaga," Duterte said.

READ: Duterte: Marcos burial in Libingan to 'erase hatred'