By Judy Flores Partlow and Juancho Gallarde
DUMAGUETE CITY, Jan. 12 (PNA) - Thousands of people in Dumaguete City and the province of Negros Oriental on Wednesday afternoon took time out from their busy schedules to attend the funeral services of the late Governor Agustin Perdices.
Although it was not a special non-working holiday due to time constraint, as only the President can declare such, many offices and schools issued their own directives to go on skeletal force so people can attend the requiem Mass and send off the late governor to his final resting place at the Dumaguete Memorial Park.
Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, former bishop of the Diocese of Dumaguete, officiated the Holy Mass at the St. Catherine of Alexandria Cathedral, with Dumaguete Bishop John F. Du and several priests concelebrating.
The funeral mass started at exactly 2 p.m. with the church packed to the brim with many more people standing outside the Cathedral and at the nearby Quezon Park during the entire service.
A conservative estimate of 5,000 people was seen in church, with thousands more lining up the streets and joining the funeral procession later to the cemetery, with the number of mourners believed to have increased to about 8,000.
In his homily, Archbishop Lagdameo paid tribute to the man whom he considered to have left a number of legacies for his predecessors to emulate.
Lagdameo, who was former president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, said the late Gov. Perdices left a legacy of genuine public service without any taint of corruption in his whole career as a politician.
Like his best friend, the late Governor Emilio Macias II, Gov. Agustin Perdices also died at 76, only a little over six months apart from when Macias died last June 13.
Lagdameo considered the two great leaders of the province as inseparable twins, saying that only death had parted them but only temporarily because they are now reunited in heaven.
Lagdameo quoted one of the late Gov. Perdices' last words, which goes, "Lord, you made me governor and now that I am governor, you are in a hurry to take me. But I am leaving my faith to Godâ€.
Lagdameo also cited what the late governor's city legal officer for 10 years, Atty. Neil Ray Lagahit said, that Perdices had “fought a good fightâ€.
In attendance during the funeral and burial were Governor Roel Degamo, Vice Governor Apolinario Arnaiz, Jr., Dumaguete Mayor Manuel Sagarbarria, Rep. George Arnaiz, Rep. Pryde Henry Teves, other city and municipal mayors and officials, local and national government officials, and even Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia who motored all the way from the other side of Negros Island to attend the services.
The Provincial Board, headed by Vice Gov. Arnaiz, and the Dumaguete City Council, headed by Atty. Alan Gel Cordova, read their respective resolutions citing the late Gov. Perdices for his contributions to the city and the province.
Mayor Leonardia, meanwhile, had earlier authored General Assembly Resolution GARES No. 2011-01 of the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) expressing deep sympathy and heartfelt condolences to the family of the late Gov. Perdices.
The LCP resolution states that it “joins the Perdices family, constituents and all those who hold him in high esteem on this sad occasion in mourning over the passing away of a man who gave the best years of his life in serving his peopleâ€.
Shortly after 3 o’clock in the afternoon, the funeral procession started from the Cathedral, with majority of the mourners walking along with the family members in what many describe as the longest funeral march in Dumaguete in decades.
As the hearse passed by the house of the late governor, supporters threw yellow confetti on the funeral car while all the street lights in the city were also turned on to give due respect to the passing away of Perdices.
Interment at the Dumaguete Memorial Park included full military honors accorded to him by the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces, including a 21-gun salute and the playing of the melancholic Taps, a traditional military bugle call during funeral ceremonies.
The Philippine flag, which was draped over Perdices’ coffin, was folded and handed over by provincial police director Sr. Supt. Rey Lyndon Lawas, to Agustin Miguel Perdices, the only son of the late governor.
Perdices was laid to rest next to the grave of his late wife, Eugenia Araneta.
The late Gov. Perdices succumbed to stomach cancer last January 5, after having served a little over six months as governor of Negros Oriental. He was 76.
Perdices served as mayor of Dumaguete for 19 years before he was elected last May 10 as the vice governor of Negros Oriental, but served in that position very briefly after he assumed the governorship following the death of re-elected Gov. Macias. (PNA)
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