MANILA - An ally of President Rodrigo Duterte rejected Monday a Palace spokesman's statement that critics of Ferdinand Marcos' burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani are "temperamental brats."
In an interview, Senate President Koko Pimentel took exception to Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar's statement in his newspaper column that those who oppose the burial of the late dictator in the heroes' cemetery are "temperamental brats."
"I don't think we are brats," Pimentel said.
He said a lot of people protesting the decision to bury Marcos in the heroes' cemetery are from the poorer sector.
"Martin Andanar should review his history," he said.
Marcos, who ruled as a dictator for 14 years, died in exile in the US in 1989, three years after a popular revolt ousted him from power.
Last Tuesday, the Supreme Court junked seven consolidated petitions of Martial Law victims, and allowed the burial of the late dictator at the Heroes' Cemetery.
Human rights victims during the martial law regime have sought a temporary injunction against the decision to allow the burial.
In his column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Andanar said those opposing Marcos' burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani have "such an awesome capacity for nurturing hate."
"They are temperamental brats refusing to concede to the outcome of regular processes," he wrote in his column.