MANILA - Human rights victims during the Martial Law years will continue their quest for justice, even after the Supreme Court reportedly ruled to allow the burial of former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

"There is the higher justice of the people. They all know that in a democracy, the sovereign people and I’ve said, it will be a political battle from hereon, and the Supreme Court is not in the supreme in the political field," Ramon Casiple, Secretary General of the Claimants 1081, told ANC.

Casiple asserted, the high court had taken a "political position" with this decision, one that "goes against the notion of achieving national reconciliation and unity."

The SC decision will also mean a "diminution of its legitimacy, just as the Supreme Court during the Marcos period has this undesirable reputation of a political body."

He said their group, which is an organization exclusively of the class suit members recognized by the Hawaii Federal District Court, already scheduled a meeting where they will discuss "in the framework of continuing the fight, a political fight to other venues."

"If the Marcoses, as they have already said publicly, will work for the presidency in 2022, then that will be a tangible target. The situation now until 2022 will be crucial," he said.

Casiple believes, with human rights victims of the Marcos years not accepting this decision, "the forces that brought down that dictatorship will be coming alive again."

"This is not the end of things. I would rather see it as a start of things. That struggles should not be wasted and that the historical verdict must be upheld, and the Marcos be made to pay for what they did during martial rule," he said.

RESPECT THE SUPREME COURT DECISION

Former political prisoner Gary Olivar said the public should respect the decision of the Supreme Court.

"One of the most important thing for us Filipinos is the ruling of Supreme Court, to respect it and due process of law to pick up whatever lessons we may as we intended to move forward," he told ANC.

He maintained, the vote made by the justices is fair as it has followed due process.

"I'm perfectly willing to grant the Supreme Court, not just its expertise on this matter of constitutional law, but also the presumption of regularity that's owed any government official," he said.

For Olivar, his main concern at the moment is for the reparations for the victims, as dictated by Republic Act 10368, to be distributed as soon as possible.

"There are about 40,000 claimants right now. That is a lot of people--a lot of them are poor, a lot of them are aging. I would like for these benefits to be distributed as soon as the final tallying has been finished by the commission members involved," he said.