No hero's resting place as Imelda Marcos finds site for husband's grave

FORMER first lady Imelda Marcos found a perfect birthday gift for her late husband yesterday, saying she has arranged his final resting place at the family's property in the Philippines.

His preserved body has been displayed in a glass coffin in his northern home town of Batac since it was flown back to the islands in 1993, and yesterday's news could end years of controversy over his interment.

Dictator Ferdinand Marcos, ousted in a popular revolt in 1986, died three years later in exile in Hawaii.

Mrs Marcos, infamous for her diamond-encrusted tiaras and 1,220 pairs of shoes, campaigned earlier this year for her husband to be buried in the National Heroes' Cemetery in Manila, arguing that he was a decorated Second World War hero and former commander-in-chief.

But many protested in a country still reeling from his 20-year dictatorship, so the Marcos family have settled on a green hilltop on the side of the Cordillera mountain range, near the mausoleum where his body lies.

Although the Marcos family still enjoys some popularity and political power in their home province of Illocos Norte, they are reviled by many, including thousands of former political prisoners, still waiting for compensation for human rights abuses.

Others denounce their alleged plundering of the economy, the subject of protracted litigation.

In 1995, some 10,000 Filipinos won a US class-action lawsuit against the Marcos' estate for torture, execution and disappearances of dissidents.