THE "ghost" of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos continues to haunt the country, 19 years after his ouster from Malacanang, 12 years after his body was returned to the Philippines after his death in exile in Hawaii.

His body is preserved and encased in a glass in a refrigerated crypt at the Marcos family mausoleum in Batac, Ilocos Norte. Former first lady Imelda R. Marcos steadfastly refuses to bury him anywhere else but at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Makati City, and with full military honors.

The wife of a former Bataan mayor who had gone to the mausoleum doubts it.

Lucy Ferrer, wife of former mayor Gaudencio Ferrer of Hermosa, Bataan, said she was an admirer of Marcos, so when ...