Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Ronald Dela Rosa said the Marcos family and the military decided on burial arrangements for former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
“Yung decision to make it secret or not, nasa pamilya na yan at sa military dahil sa kanila yung affair na yan. Kami po ay nagrereact lang to whatever decisions na ginagawa nila,” he said during a media briefing on Monday.
[Translation: The decision to make or secret or not remains with the family and the military because it is their affair. We only respond who whatever decisions they make.]
Critics including Vice President Leni Robredo said the police and the military coordinated secretly with the Marcos family for the controversial burial on Friday.
Dela Rosa said the PNP was in a situation where it needed to balance the family’s request and public welfare.
“Sala sa lamig, sala sa init. E kung hindi kami nagprepare sabihin naman balatuba itong pulis natin hindi nagprepare. Alam natin na iliibing si Marcos hindi nagprepare. So saan kami pupunta ngayon?” Dela Rosa said.
[Translation: It’s not a win-win situation. If we did not prepare, they would have called us lax. They would have said the police knew that Marcos was going to be buried and we weren’t ready for it.]
“Kung gusto namin maging secret dapat yung pulis namin tinatago namin kung saan madeploy. Patago na deployment and makita naman ninyo may pulis doon na dineploy namin,” he said.
[Translation: If we wanted to keep it a secret, we would have kept people unaware of where our policemen were deployed.]
The PNP chief said there was no politics behind his actions.
He added they only wanted to prevent chaos and violence.
