Flowers help ease tensions

Commotion ensued Saturday between pro- and anti-Duterte protesters after Filipino musician Jim Paredes confronted the Duterte supporters who had showed up on the sidelines of the rally. Authorities immediately intervened.

Seven men who were part of the Duterte Youth group were berated. Others shooed them away with profanity-laden tirades.

Tensions eased when an anti-Duterte supporter handed flowers to the seven men.

Simon Valencia, 28, said the flowers were a gesture on his part to support the group's freedom of expression.

Duterte 'waging a war on democracy'

Former Philippine President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, son of the late pro-democracy icon Corazon Aquino, was among those attending Saturday's event. His mother was catapulted into power after Marcos' ouster.

Benigno Aquino said this year's commemoration is more than an act of remembrance. "(The) fight is not over if we are not ready to defend our rights," he told reporters.

Last year, Duterte ordered the honorary burial of Marcos' remains at a state cemetery reserved for war heroes, national artists and those who bring distinction to the country. The law refers to those interred at the Heroes' Cemetery as men and women who are "worthy of emulation" by generations of Filipinos.

"The Marcoses -- through Duterte -- are erasing the Filipino people's memory and moral standards by burying the former dictator as a hero," said human rights lawyer Jesus Falcis, who was among those who had petitioned the Philippine Supreme Court to try and stop the burial.

"Duterte himself is waging a war on democracy -- not just on the poor and drugs -- with his creeping authoritarianism," said Falcis, who came to Saturday's rally with friends.