In life and in death

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor CHERYL CRUZ Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

The family of the late Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo has declined offers to have his remains buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, or burial ground for heroes, in Manila.

Instead, they informed those who are proposing it that they would rather have his final resting place in the city that he had loved and served for the greater part of his public life. This, they said, is what Robredo himself would have wanted.

What a contrast to those who are trying to do everything they can to ensure that an unlamented member of their family be given a hero’s burial in that honored place where the country’s heroes, and those who have served their country honorably, are interred.

Ever since the government allowed her to come home, and to bring the body of her husband the Martial Law president of the country, who had tried to perpetuate himself in power, ruling his people with an iron hand, former first lady Imelda Marcos, had been demanding that his remains be buried in the hallowed ground of the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Several administrations have come and gone, but none of them had seen the justification for having his body join those of Filipinos who had served their country well, and earned the respect and admiration of their people.

That is why, to this day, the supposed cadaver of the late President Ferdinand Marcos, continues to be exhibited in a glass case in his hometown, waiting, waiting for a president who would overlook what he had wrought on this country, and allow that representation of his body to settle at the Libingan. Until now, however, there are still many, perhaps even the majority of the people, who feel that his transfer there would only desecrate the place.

And now here is the family of Robredo, who are declining that privilege. That is because they know he loved his own city, and would like to stay there, while the Marcoses do not seem willing to have their patriarch – even just his remains – stay with his own people.

Two public servants – what a difference there is between them and their families – in life, and in death.*