The Supreme Court voted 9-5 on Tuesday, with one justice abstaining.

Spokesman for the high court Theodore Te said the justices had not agreed with petitioners' arguments  that Marcos was disqualified from being buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes' Cemetery), adding that Marcos can be interred there because he is "a former president, a former soldier and a former legislator, and has not been convicted of crimes of moral turpitude."

The politics of the case is clear, as is the message from the country's new hardman leader. Duterte - leader of the left-wing PDP–Laban - has since his May election victory praised among other things Adolf Hitler’s efficiency and said he would seek to emulate it in his war on crime. 

The legacy of the Marcos family has long split Filipino society, with opponents claiming he oversaw a brutal dictatorship in the 1980s. The family of late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos has also enjoyed a political comeback since the "People Power" revolution ended his rule in 1986. Riot police stood between opposing groups rallying outside the court on Tuesday.

"We are disappointed. We are heartbroken. We are outraged," a coalition of nearly 40 groups opposed to Marcos's burial at the cemetery said in a joint statement. "With this decision, the very definition of hero is now in question."

Meanwhile, the dictator's son, the former Sen. Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr., thanked the high court for taking "a magnanimous act to uphold the rule of law" and expressed his gratitude to Duterte.

After being ousted in 1986, Marcos fled to Hawaii, where he lived with his wife and children in exile until he died in 1989. His body was flown back to his hometown in 1993, where it has been displayed in a glass coffin remarkable (pictured above).

jbh/kms (AP, dpa)