Zamboanga City mayor dies of heart failure; 82
Posted: 11:05 AM (Manila Time - Originally posted 9:20 a.m.) | Jan. 03, 2004
INQ7.net

Zamboanga Mayor Maria Clara Lobregat passes away
MindaNews / 3 January 2004

ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Mayor Maria Clara Rafols Lorenzo-Lobregat, died of cardiac arrest at 11:30 p.m. January 2 at the Manila Medical Center.

The first woman mayor of Zamboanga City would have turned 83 on April 26.

Lobregat, daughter of a politician-businessman and Mindanao’s richest city mayor last year, became the second mayor here to die in office in 20 years.

Bullets snuffed the life out of Mayor Cesar Cortes Climaco on November 14, 2004 (editor correction: 1984); cardiac arrest caused Lobregat’s death on January 2, 2004

The second of five children of Pablo Lorenzo and Luisa Rafols, Lobregat started her political career at age 50, as representative of Zamboanga City in the 1971 Constitutional Convention.

Before 1971, Lobregat, mother of six, was president of the Philippine Coconut Producers Federation.

Throughout her political career, Lobregat lost in only one election – in 1984 for the lone seat at the Batasang Pambansa. Allied with the Marcose, she lost to Mayor Climaco who did not assume his post as assemblyman.

With Marcos gone and the then opposition-turned-administration splitting into factions, Lobregat easily won as representative of the lone district of Zamboanga City in the 1987 elections and was reelected in 1992 and 1995. She ran and won the mayoralty in 1998, was reelected in 2001 and was set to file her certificate of candidacy for a third term on January 5 this year. Her son Celso, is presently occupying the congressional seat she held from 1987 to 1998. Her nephew, Luis Lorenzo, Jr., is Agriculture Secretary.

Lobregat’s net worth as of end of 2002, was P27.8 million, making her the richest Mindanao city mayor.

In her Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) as of end of 2002, Lobregat listed 18 companies where she has "shareholdings" and listed as number 19, "other enterprises (resort and others)" where she also has "shareholdings."

Lobregat's business interests included banking, real estate, flower growing, mining, resort and resort development, recreation, petroleum, etc.

Her remains will be brought here Sunday and will stay for three days at the Zamboanga Metropolitan Cathedral. From here, her remains will be returned to Manila for interment at the Manila Memorial Park on a date still to be announced.

Lobregat, always seen in public wearing kimona and patadyong, was among three female representatives who figured prominently in the protest actions against the creation of the Southern Philippines Council for Peace and Development (SPCPD) in 1996. She, along with then South Cotabato representatives Luwalhati Antonino and Daisy Fuentes, were referred to by the media as “Tres Marias.”

Lobregat was a harsh critic of Moro National Liberation Front chair Nur Misuari, insisted that the controversial coconut levy funds were private funds; campaigned against the inclusion of her city in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in the 1989 and 2001 plebiscite; ordered the Filipino deportees from Sabah in 2002 to be “screened” before entering her city, opposed the transfer of the regional seat from Zamboanga City to Pagadian City and was an avid supporter of the joint US-RP military exercise, Balikatan.

Lobregat was educated at the Pilar College in Zamboanga City, Maryknoll and St. Scholastica in Manila and is the recipient of an  "honoris causa" -- Doctor of Humanities from the Ateneo de Davao University in 1979, Doctor in Business Administration from the Aquinas University in 1980, and Doctor in Educational Administration, Western Mindanao State University.

Lobregat was also a former member of the Board of Trustees of the Ateneo de Zamboanga, Ateneo de Manila University Scholarship Foundation and the Xavier University Scholarship Foundation.

Her major contributions to Zamboanga as a three-termer representative is the sponsorship of RA 7903 which created the Special Economic Zone and Freeport in Zamboanga City, RA 7272, which converted the Zamboanga Regional Hospital into the Zamboanga City Medical Center, RA 7474 which converted the Zamboanga School of Arts and Trades into a polytechnic college, now referred to as the Zamboanga City Polytechnic College and RA 7350, making October 12 of every year a special non-working holiday in Zamboanga to celebrate Fiesta Pilar.

Zamboanga’s new mayor is from media
MindaNews / 3 January 2004

ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Vice Mayor Erico Basilio “Erbie” Fabian is the city’s new mayor.

Under the rule of succession, Fabian will be assuming the post following the death of Mayor Maria Clara Lobregat. Lobregat succumbed to cardiac arrest late Friday evening in Manila.

Fabian filed his certificate of candidacy for vice mayor under Lobregat’s party before he left for a Christmas break in the United States. He is scheduled to arrive tomorrow, January 4.

Fabian used to work as a television reporter in the First United Broadcasting Corporation owned by the late mayor. He served as councilor before becoming vice mayor.

Zamboanga folks mourn Lobregat's demise

By BONG GARCIA JR., TODAY Correspondent, abs-cbn News

Sunday, January 4, 2004 10:09 PM

ZAMBOANGA CITY - The remains of the late Mayor Maria Clara Lobregat will stay in Zamboanga for two more days before its departure for Manila on Wednesday.

Her remains, accompanied by son NPC Rep. Celso Lobregat, other relatives, and Vice Mayor Erico Basilio Fabian, arrived here 3 p.m. Sunday on an Air Philippines flight from Manila, where she died.

Thousands of people lined up the streets to solemnly watch as her body was brought from the airport to the Zamboanga City Metropolitan Cathedral.

Several people held placards that read: “You will remain in our hearts forever” and “We will miss you, Tita Caling [what the people fondly call her].”

But for Col. Tony Abati, the commander of the US forces participating in the ongoing antiterror training of Filipino troops, and other US military officers, she is “Mama.”

“She is the most loving woman that we ever met,” said Abati.

“She is a very motherly woman. Whenever we ask something from her, she always provides,” said Brig. Gen. Rodulfo Diaz, vice commander of the Southern Command.

Based on the plan prepared by the city government, her body will lie in state at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral until Wednesday. A vigil will be held on Tuesday.

A novena will be held at the Fort Pilar Shrine at 5 p.m. everyday.

On Wednesday a mass will be held at the cathedral to be followed by a funeral procession around City Hall, the City Museum, and Fort Pilar before the body is taken again to the Zamboanga International Airport for its departure for Manila.

The meeting for the late mayor’s funeral arrangements was presided over by councilor Maria Isabelle Climaco on Saturday at the temporary City Hall in Fort Pilar.

It was attended by the city department heads, members of the Sangguniang Panglunsod, and the Mayor’s inner circle of executive assistants.

Arrival honors were handled by city administrator Antonio Orendain and councilor Elias Enriquez.

The wake at the cathedral including the funeral procession are being handled by city health officer Rodel Agbulos and city tourism officer Sarita Hernandez.

Physical arrangements including security and parking are being handled by general services officer Alfredo Fuertes and public services officer Rey Gonzales.

Orendain and Enriquez will also handle departure honors for the late mayor before her body is brought back to Manila for burial.

Zamboanga’s Mayor Lobregat dies at 82

By RENE ACOSTA, TODAY Correspondent

Sunday, January 4, 2004 12:27 AM

Zamboanga City Mayor Maria Clara Lobregat died on Friday night of multiple organ failure. She was 82.

A second-term mayor of Zamboanga City, Lobregat was planning to run for a third term when she died, her son Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Celso Lobregat of Zamboanga City said.

“Nilagnat siya noong December 27. Laboratory tests showed that her white blood corpuscle count was too low and she needed blood transfusion. At first her body responded, but still the count did not improve,” the son said.

Lobregat said that her mother’s organs, including her heart, later collapsed and she died at 11:50 p.m. at the Manila Medical Center. Her body now lies at the Saint Scholastica’s College in Manila, where she studied.

Until Friday, he said the mayor was still signing documents that were being brought to her by her employees, including her certificate of candidacy which is supposed to be filed on Monday by the lawmaker in Zamboanga City.

Lobregat said her mother’s body would be taken Sunday to Zamboanga City and will be returned to Manila three days later for burial at the Manila Memorial Park.

The late mayor was the congresswoman of Zamboanga City from 1987 to 1998. She also served as the governor of the Philippine National Red Cross while being the mayor of Zamboanga City.

The elder Lobregat was also a respondent along with businessman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. and former senator Juan Ponce Enrile in the forfeiture case involving the shares of stocks of United Coconut Planters Bank that was filed by the government.

She was included among the respondents because of her membership on the board of directors of the Philippine Coconut Authority.

The Sandiganbayan have declared Cojuangco’s shares in the UCPB as owned by the Republic.

The Middle East's Leading English Language Daily

Zamboanga Leader Dies at 83
Al Jacinto, Special to Arab News

Sunday, 4, January, 2004

ZAMBOANGA CITY, 4 January 2004 — Maria Clara L. Lobregat, the influential mayor of Zamboanga City and a staunch supporter of US troop deployment in the southern Philippines, died of heart attack in Manila, her family and aides said yesterday.

Lobregat, a member of the political opposition LDP party, died shortly before midnight Thursday in hospital, her staff said. She was 83. No other details were made available by Lobregat’s staff, but the news of her sudden demise shocked many people in the city. She was last seen speaking to reporters on television on Thursday about her plan to seek re-election in May.

“She was a big loss to everybody,” said Jesus Dureza, the presidential adviser for Mindanao.

Lobregat, born in April 26, 1921 from a Filipino mother Luisa Rafols and Spanish-Filipino father Don Pablo Lorenzo.

A former congresswoman, Lobregat had strongly supported the presence of US military forces in Zamboanga City during the joint RP-US Balikatan 02-1 (Shoulder-to-Shoulder) in 2002 and the smaller anti-terrorism exercise Project Bayanihan (Helping hand) between the two countries last year.

The 21st mayor of city, Lobregat had led tens of thousands of local residents and joined pro-US rally in in support to the government’s anti-terrorism campaign.

A widow, she started her political career in 1971 when she was elected as the city’s delegate to the Constitutional Convention. During the Marcos regime, she was the chair of the Philippine Coconut Authority.

She ran for the position of regional representative to the Batasang Pambansa in the early 1980s but lost to the more colorful Cesar C. Climaco. In 1987, she ran for Zamboanga City’s congressional seat and won the election.

Mayor Lobregat’s remains arrives in Zamboanga
MindaNews / 4 January 2004

Lobregat, Zamboanga mayor, is dead
Monday, January 5, 2004 12:06 AM

abs-cbnNEWS.com monitor

Mayor Maria Clara Rafols Lorenzo-Lobregat died of cardiac arrest Friday night at the Manila Medical Center, MindaNews reported Saturday.

The first woman mayor of Zamboanga City would have turned 83 on April 26.

Lobregat became the second mayor of Zamboanga City to die in office in 20 years.

Mayor Cesar Cortes Climaco was gunned down during the martial-law years.

The second of five children of Pablo Lorenzo and Luisa Rafols, Lobregat started her political career at age 50 as representative of Zamboanga City to the 1971 Constitutional Convention.

Before 1971 Lobregat, mother of six, was president of the Philippine Coconut Producers’ Federation.
 

Editorial: An emptiness in Zamboanga

Tuesday, January 06, 2004 - Sun-Star Zamboanga

AN INEFFABLE emptiness has descended in the city of Zamboanga. The demise of its beloved mayor Maria Clara Lorenzo Lobregat in Manila last Friday night has brought about a pall of gloominess seldom experienced by its people in times gone by.

The mayor has rose to epitomize the best that could be expected of a mother, a leader of a fractious city, an exemplar in altruism unequalled in the history of the city and its people.

Her near 20 years of unquestionable commitment in the service of her people has earned her a permanent niche in the hearts of hundreds of thousands of the people that she has shown could be loved and served regardless of creed, color or clime.

Most, if not all of us, have been touched, directly or indirectly, by her kindness, her generosity that knows no bounds or limit, in ways that will make her a personal part of our lives.

Many will be those who will extol her, but the simple people in Zamboanga whose lives have been touched by her generous heart will need no further deeds or words to enshrine her forever in their hearts.

The unrestrained outpouring of emotions of our people from the time they learned of her untimely transition, to today and well until her remains may have been returned to whence it came from--will know no end.

She has endeared herself to her people, in intimate ways uniquely experienced by all of us. The city and its people will never be able to live from hereon without her in their minds and hearts for as long as they live.

Our beloved mayor has enshrined herself in our hearts and minds in a way that will ensure her eternal repose in our souls.

We will all feel the emptiness of her going. Yet a part of her will remain with us. After this emptiness will come the realization that we have been fortunate to share our lives with her.

In this manner then, it will be as if she has never left as at all. She has and always will be--a part of our lives.

“Tita Caling: She Was A Symbol Of A Brave Community, A Mother To All”
Peace Advocates Zamboanga / MindaNews / 6  January 2004

ZAMBOANGA CITY--  “She was a symbol of a brave community, who made Zamboanga alert, prepared against terrorism. Her death is a great loss to the local and national political leadership. We shall always remember her and her memory as an inspiration of service and leadership.”

This was how President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo eulogized the city’s first lady mayor and longest serving incumbent political leader, Maria Clara L. Lobregat, who died of cardiac failure last Friday night the Manila Medical Center in Manila at the age of 82.

The President flew to the city Tuesday morning to attend a requiem mass for the late mayor at the Metropolitan Cathedral, where the body of the late mayor had lain in state since it arrived in the city Sunday afternoon. Thousands of mourners met her remains at the airport. Others lined the streets where her hearse passed to get a glimpse and to shower it with flower petals while displaying placards and streamers expressing their affection for her.

In her eulogy, the President further extolled Lobregat: “She was my little mother. She had a heart for the poor. She was called Tita Caling because she was a mother to all who needed her help. She could eat with kings and ordinary folks alike. She was sincere to her constituents.”

Lobregat was serving her second consecutive term as mayor and was planning to seek re-election, which had generally been seen here as a fait accompli, in the coming May polls when she died

Before her election as mayor in 1998, she served for three consecutive terms as the city’s lone congresswoman, being first elected in the House of Representatives in 1987, then again in 1992 and 1995. She was the city’s elected delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1970. As congresswoman her most notable accomplishment was her authoring of the law creating the Zamboanga Special Economic and Free Port. She was twice nominated by her party to run for senator, which she each time declined in favor of the local mayorship.

As mayor, she was notable for the construction of several new public buildings, rebuilding of public parks and plazas and beautification projects, infrastructure facilities in barangays, housing to resettle squatters occupying public land, and considerable investments in public security logistics and operation in the face of terrorist threats against the city.

Her father, the late Don Pablo Lorenzo, was a former secretary of education and Ms. Lobregat funded the creation of a local pilot public high school that bears her father’s name. She and the late Celso “Tito” Lobregat, deceased for many years, had seven children. She was the last of the “old guards” of local politics and with her demise local politics will pass on to the shoulders of her son, Celso, who will the mayorship in May, and other politicians who are at least one generation younger than her.

Her remains was set to be flown back on Wednesday to Manila, where she will be interred in the weekend in a family mausoleum.

OUR PEACE: Amor Con Amor Se Paga
By Peace Advocates Zamboanga

ZAMBOANGA CITY -- We lost a mother.

This was the sentiment of affection mixed with sorrow that local residents felt and expressed over the unexpected death of the much-loved city mayor, Maria Clara L. Lobregat, last Friday night while under confinement for fever in a hospital in Manila. At the time of her death, she had served the city she undoubtedly loved so much for 19 straight years, from its congresswoman from 1987 to 1998 and since then as mayor.

With her instinctive generosity, she touched countless people’s lives - she was the fond Tita Caling or Ma’m Caling to young and old. She was notoriously soft-hearted towards the needy and was ever ready to shell out money or write a check of donation to any one who came to her for help. Apparently, most of the time the funds for charity came from her personal fortune, having inherited a vast agricultural estate and sizeable business interests mostly in Mindanao, particularly from her father Don Pablo Lorenzo.

The person that she was fitted her to the kind of community that Zamboanga is like hand in glove, and this could be why she loved the place so passionately. She was thoroughly conservative in her moral and political views, as the city has been implacably to this day. She loved culture and the arts, and the city has a naturally romantic ambience to it and a vibrant mixed culture. She was a mestiza Espanola in the same way that the city has retained its Spanish character since its days as a garrison town of the colonial Spanish government. She strived much and won some to make the pidgin Spanish Chavacano language of the city once again the local lingua franca, even cutting Chavacano love songs that she herself sang for mass distribution.

Although her political style may be more of the traditional patronage type that continues to persist in the country, she accomplished much in building and rebuilding public edifices and facilities, enough to give the city a much-needed facelift. She nipped the threats of terrorism and heightened criminality in the city by pouring millions of pesos in funds to purchase logistics and support the operational needs of law enforcement in the city, helping make the city safer for its residents.

Through all this and more she left a huge imprint in the city and a legacy of astute public stewardship. She blazed a trail that those who now inherit her mantle of leadership should welcome as their guide and standard as the city faces immense challenges and opportunities. To her younger political successors her favorite slogan of “Man Junto-Junto Kita” should translate into a truly liberal and progressive outlook in governance for the benefit of a citizenry she loved much and loved her much in return.

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Our Peace is a mini-editorial of the Peace Advocates Zamboanga)

ELECTIONS 2004
Lobregat son to run for mayor
MindaNews / 6 January 2004

ZAMBOANGA CITY  - After the mother, the son.

Rep. Celso Lobregat, who occupied the lone congressional seat his mother, Maria Clara Lobregat, held from 1988 to 1998, is running for the mayoralty seat vacated by his mother, who passed away on January 2.

Maria Clara Lobregat, the first woman mayor of Zamboanga City, was set to file her certificate of candidacy for a third term on January 5 but died three days earlier.

Her son, Celso, is running under the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) while the successor-mayor, Erico Basilio Fabian, is running for the congressional seat Celso will vacate.

Maria Isabelle Climaco, successor-vice mayor, will be Lobregat’s running mate.

In a press statement, Rep. Lobregat said he decided to run for mayor to continue the plans of the late mayor for the city.

Rep. Lobregat will be challenged at the polls by businessman Lee Peng Wee of the Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Lakas ng Bansa, Councilor Charlie Mariano of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) and Alejandro Guardian who is running as an independent candidate.

The Lobregat son filed his certificate of candidacy together with the rest of the LDP candidates evening of January 5 after a meeting last Sunday, which saw the dramatic exit of party loyalists Manny Dalipe and son Mannix from the party.

Wee filed his COC early Monday morning while Mariano and Guardian filed theirs much earlier.

Rep. Lobregat’s decision to run for mayor led to the resignation of party loyalists Manuel Dalipe, Sr. and sons Councilor Mannix and Sangguniang Kabataan John from the party.

The elder Dalipe was said to have expressed his intention to run for mayor under the LDP after the mayor’s death but Rep. Lobregat reportedly nixed the idea.

Dalipe initially decided to form his own group and run under the banner of PMP-KNP but opted instead to run for Congress against Fabian, the vice mayor who now sits as mayor after Mayor Lobregat’s death.

Dalipe’s son, Mannix, is running for reelection as councilor under the Partido ng Masang Pilipino-Kilusang ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (PMP-KNP).

Two new council bets were also nominated to take the positions left vacant by Climaco and Dalipe. They are Camino Nuevo barangay Chairman Aurelio Deles and Sta. Catalina barangay kagawad Benjamin Guingona, III.

Tdding, Elong Natividad, Eddie Saavedra, Rey Candido, Rudy Lim, Milabel Velasquez and Cesar Iturralde.

Opposition bloc revives unification efforts
Posted: 7:25 PM (Manila Time) | Jan. 07, 2004
By Lira Dalangin; INQ7.net

THE LAST WISH of the late Zamboanga City mayor Maria Clara Lobregat could unite the fractious Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (Fight of the Free Filipino, LDP) for the May elections.

At the necrological services for Lobregat in Zamboanga City Wednesday, LDP president and Senator Edgardo Angara, who heads one faction, and party secretary general and Makati Representative Agapito Aquino, who heads another faction, said they agreed to try to patch up their differences starting at the party's local level.

Before her death, Lobregat, one of the pioneers of the LDP, had been making efforts to make Aquino and Angara resolve the LDP rift, according to Aquino.

He said unification "was something Tita Caling (Lobregat) was insisting (on)."   The rift within the LDP stemmed from the party leaders' different choice of party presidential candidate in the May elections.

While Aquino supported party member Senator Panfilo Lacson, Angara endorsed the candidacy of non-party member actor Fernando Poe Jr., whom they made standard-bearer of the opposition's Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (Coalition of United Filipinos, KNP), of which the Angara faction of the LDP is part.

"I didn't know she was calling Senator Angara everyday, and almost every day she was also calling me to tell me that if the opposition was to expect some kind of victory, we have to unite," Aquino said.

"And so, Senator Angara and I decided to talk and find ways and means to get together in the elections.... Between now and elections day, all our acts will be for (a) unification process," he told reporters at the Manila domestic airport upon their arrival from Zamboanga.

Aquino was accompanied by Lacson and House Minority Leader Carlos Padilla, a senatorial aspirant who has been adopted by KNP.

Asked for his comment, Lacson said he believed a reconciliation of the political opposition was still possible until before elections day.

Asked anew if he had spoken with Angara, he said they only exchanged "peace be with you" to each other during the mass.

Aquino said it would be a "step by step" unification effort starting from the local level "up to the national level."

The Commission on Elections recently ruled to accredit LDP candidates endorsed by either Aquino or Angara.

The two factions would also equally share the certificates of canvass in the precincts nationwide, with one faction getting the even-numbered precincts and the other the odd-numbered precincts.

For example, Aquino said that in areas where there were no KNP candidates endorsed by Angara, but where there were LDP candidates endorsed by him, then the candidate would run under the banner of the LDP.
In those areas with KNP candidates and without LDP candidates, Aquino said the candidates would run under KNP.

In areas where each LDP faction had its own candidate, "we will have to talk to them (the candidates)," he said.

"First, we have to identify these areas. We don't know the extent of this and so Senator Angara will be designating his own people to sit down with us to find out how big is the division," Aquino added.

He said he believed a united opposition would have better chances of winning in the May elections.

"Efforts will continue all the way to election day," he added.

Thousands join Lobregat’s funeral procession

MindaNews / 7 January 2004

ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Thousands of Zamboangueños from all walks of life joined the funeral procession of the late Mayor Maria Clara Lobregat, whose remains were airlifted aboard an Air Philippines flight Wednesday afternoon to Manila in preparation for her interment on Saturday at the Manila Memorial Cemetery.

This after visiting President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared Wednesday as a non-working public holiday for Zamboanga City to give government and private employees the opportunity to pay their last respects to the late mayor, whom the people treated as the mother of this city.

The funeral procession started shortly after 12 noon at the Zamboanga City Metropolitan Cathedral. It passed in front of her residence along Nuñez St. and to her temporary office at the Museum de Zamboanga, where the Our Lady of the Pillar Shrine is also located.

Firetrucks’ sirens blew when the procession passed by the City Hall, which is still under renovation. It is one of her pet projects that she could no longer see upon completion.

The sirens also blew once more when the procession passed in front of the Zamboanga City Fire Station.

The last stop was at the Carmelite monastery along R.T. Lim Boulevard where a short prayer was said.

As the funeral procession passed through the main thoroughfares leading towards the Zamboanga City International Airport, more and more people, who were waiting on both sides of the road, joined the march.

Flowers and confetti fell from high-rise buildings when the funeral procession passed through the city’s commercial center. An Air Force helicopter hovered to also drop flowers.

Her remains were accompanied to Manila by his immediate relatives and some of the city government officials.

City government officials will be leaving for Manila on Thursday and Friday for the interment.

Since Sunday, thousands of Zamboangueños patiently joined the queue at the Zamboanga City Metropolitan Cathedral to have a last glimpse of Tita Caling, as she was fondly called by her constituents.

The remains of the late mayor arrived here Sunday afternoon aboard an Air Philippines flight two days after her death at the Manila Medical Center.

Lobregat's remains brought to Congress

abs-cbnNEWS.com monitor

Thursday, January 8, 2004 2:30 PM

The remains of Zamboanga City Mayor and former congresswoman Maria Clara Lobregat were brought to the House of Representatives Thursday for a necrological service.

Sen. Noli de Castro, Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., presidential candidate Raul Roco and some congressmen paid their last respects to Lobregat, who served in the 9th and 10th Congress.

A mass was held at around 8:30 a.m.

A family spokesman said Lobgregat's remains will be brought back to Sanctuario de San Antonio in Forbes Park at 2 p.m. Thursday.

Her interment was scheduled on January 10.

3 journalists running for councilors in Zamboanga
MindaNews / 9 January 2004

ZAMBOANGA CITY --  Thirty-eight candidates, three of them journalists, have filed their certificates of candidacy for this city's fifteen elective posts.

Of the 38, three candidates are running for the lone congressional seat, five for mayor, three for vice-mayor, and 27 for the 12-member city council, according to city election officer Roy Cuevas.

Cuevas said the filing of the COCs that ended midnight of January 5 was peaceful and orderly.

The election for mayor is expected to be hotly contested, he said.

Among the strong contenders are incumbent Rep. Celso Lobregat of LDP, Lakas-Christian and Muslim Democrats Councilor Charlie Mariano and Zamboanga business tycoon Lepeng Wee.

The other candidates are Alejandrdo Guardian, president of the biggest tricycle operators and drivers association in this city, and Abdusalan Angkaya of Partido Isang Bansa, Isang Diwa.

The lone congressional seat will be contested by Mayor Erico Basilio Fabian (LDP), former Zamboanga Economic Zone chair and vice-mayor Manuel Dalipe, Sr., and retired Sr. Supt. Reynerio Camins.

Gunning for the vice mayoralty post are Vice-Mayor Ma. Isabelle Climaco (LDP), Councilor Jaime Cabato (Lakas-CMD), and a certain Popoy Tumagitgit of Isang Bansa, Isang Diwa.

The aspirants for the city council are: LDP's Councilors Asbi Edding, Milabel Velasquez, Edmundo Rodriguez, Roel Natividad, Elias Enriquez, Cesar Itturalde, Juan Climaco Elago, Federation of Barangay Kagawad of Zamboanga President Rodolfo Lim, Tugbungan barangay chiarman Edmundo Saavedra, Camino Nuevo barangay chair Aurelio Deles, ABS-CBN Zamboanga station manager Reynerio Candido and Sta. Catalina barangay kagawad Benjamin Guingona, III.

Lakas-CMD's Councilor Cesar Jimenez, lawyers Ricardo Baban, Jr., Cresenciano Cabanlit and Luis Climaco, former city agriculturist Alberto Alfaro, former city health officer Rogelio Silapan, mediaman and former Councilor Maximo Enriquez, Jr., ex-police chief Roger Carpio, mediamen Gerasimo Acuña and Abelardo Dondoyano, transport operator Luis Biel, III, and former vice-mayor Roberto Ko.

Dubai: Saturday, January 10, 2004

Priest voices anger over politics at funeral wake
Manila |By Barbara Mae Dacanay, Bureau Chief | 10-01-2004

A priest expressed anger that divided opposition leaders met several times at the funeral wake of [Mayor and former] Congresswoman Maria Clara Lobregat, especially on the eve of her burial.

"I can't believe that politicians would use any venue, even a funeral wake, to discuss politics and not to honour the dead," said the priest who requested anonymity.

Secret close door meetings occurred at the House of Representatives when the body of Lobregat was bought, before her interment today.

The warring camps of action star Fernando Poe Jr. and Senator Panfilo Lacson met for several hours, following a request from former president Joseph Estrada who said the two must unite so as not to weaken the opposition in the May elections.

Earlier, Poe and Lacson went to Zamboanga in thes outhern Philippines, to meet during the wake for Lobregat in her hometown.

Zamboanga City mayor Lobregat laid to rest
Posted: 3:00 PM (Manila Time) | Jan. 10, 2004
INQ7.net with GMA 7

THE LATE Zamboanga City mayor Maria Clara Lobregat was laid to rest Saturday at the Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque City, GMA Network radio station dzBB reported.

Lobregat, 82, was buried beside husband Celso Lobregat Sr., the report said.

Lobregat died of heart failure on January 2.

Lobregat was a 1971 constitutional convention delegate. She was also a three-term Zamboanga congresswoman starting in 1987 before being elected as the first woman mayor of Zamboanga City in 1998.

An afternoon with Tita Caling
Posted: 9:23 AM (Manila Time) | Jan. 11, 2004
By Fe B. Zamora; Inquirer News Service

SHE never expected to be featured in the Sunday Inquirer Magazine, but when she was one Sunday in June last year, Mayor Maria Clara "Tita Caling" Lobregat was on Cloud 9. "She's so happy, the entire City Hall is humming with her," said city tourism officer Sarita Hernandez, in a text message to SIM.

The first woman mayor of Zamboanga City had long accepted the fact that she was news because her city is, but stuff for Sunday magazine reading she was not. Who wants to read about bombings, massacres and kidnappings -- the usual Zamboanga-datelined stories -- on a Sunday? Besides, the Mayor was vocal about her dislike of Imperial Manila making decisions for Mindanao. She disapproved, in particular, of Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita, who was then presidential adviser on the peace process, and Norberto Gonzales, presidential adviser on strategic concerns, brokering the peace process with the Moro rebels. "Ermita is from Batangas and Gonzales is from Manila! And they represent Mindanao in the peace process?" she exclaimed.

On June 13, 2003, Tita Caling was a picture of a happy, contented mayor. And well she should have been. The day before, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the members of her cabinet and the diplomatic corps were in the city to celebrate Independence Day. The traditional vin d'honneur was held aboard the presidential yacht Ang Pangulo docked at the secluded Southcom beach. For one day, Zamboanga was the "seat of power."

The mayor was getting her afternoon siesta, lounging at her rest house in La Vista del Mar, the family-owned beach resort just outside the city proper. The house itself is an architectural marvel of wood, nipa, bamboo and all things native wrapped around a tree. The veranda overlooks the sea. Here the mayor, several cellular phones and a tray of mangosteen and tambis (a variety of macopa) beside her, killed time shooting the breeze with Dr. Anton Lim, his wife Joyce and SIM.

She was glad that the ambassadors liked Zamboanga City. She hoped that they would spread the word around that things were not as bad. She approved of the security measures, and was thankful that the US military was around helping the locals.

Then she popped the question that was on everybody's mind then: "What do you think, will she (Ms Macapagal) run?" Many of the diplomats were curious, she said, but of course, nobody dared ask the President.

And so we asked her the same question about her own political plans. "And what about you? Will you run in May 2004?"

Mayor Lobregat was congresswoman for three consecutive terms, and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1971. She was elected mayor in 1998 and was due for re-election in May. Word in Zamboanga was that she might run unopposed.

"Definitely I will run, God willing," she said then.

Mayor Maria Clara Lobregat passed away on January 2, 2004 at the Manila Medical Center. She was 82.

Farewell to Zamboanga’s Maria Clara

By Tingting Cojuangco; The Philippine STAR 01/11/2004

LIFESTYLE FEATURE - Sunday Life
 

From where I sit I am listening to the waves rushing towards the seashore and it seems like the hum of a lullaby. This is my constant companion in this peninsula, which is surrounded by two seas – the Sulu and the Moro Gulf. Nightly, I stare at the wide sea reminiscing about life in a Samal home in this city once known as "The City of Flowers" and the "Land of Lovely Mestizas."

A Karaoke blasting in a bar distracts me from writing. Heavy drums and a bellowing voice sings. "I know that I’d be a blah..blah..look into your eyes..." Both drums and voice are incoherent and just plain noisy. A pedicab’s engine makes an irritating buzzing sound like a hundred bumblebees, the still and humid evening has nature battling modernity.

* * *

Bringing goodwill and reunions, Christmas, I thought, was kind to me. Then, all of a sudden, sadness and mourning set in. That is what has brought me to this city known also as "un rinconcito de España, un precioso pedazo del Corazon de Castilla" with its mayor’s demise.

"Zamboanga?" asks a relative as we landed. Zamboanga comes from the Samal word "samuang" and the Samals told me it means to drive a bamboo pole into the mud. They claim to have given Zamboanga its name and therefore its first inhabitants were their ancestors. Another story is that a Spanish soldier, seeing a Samal boatman who happened to stray down a riverbank, chanced upon a Samal boatman mooring his vinta with a bamboo pole. The soldier asked the boatman what the name of the place was, to which the latter, thinking that his inquirer wanted to know what he was doing, replied "samuang." The soldier, believing in turn that he was understood, took "samuang" to be the name of the place.

* * *

Once called the Garden of Eden, Zamboanga was also called Jambangan by the Samals, which means "a place of flowers." It certainly lived up to its name this week when red petals were strewn on the streets for its spontaneous welcome for Zamboanga’s Mayor Maria Clara Lorenzo Lobregat who passed away in Manila. Thousands lined the streets to welcome her home. The enormous, Zamboanga Cathedral was crowded as many kept vigil while the mayor lay at rest in her beige coffin and her signature attire. A style that actually bears her name, Maria Clara. Instead of her usual flowery skirt and embroidered matching top, she was wearing a beige piña with tiny seed pearls with her hair pulled back in her trademark bun.

What ordinarily takes a mere 15-minute ride to the airport became a two-hour procession as Chabacanos escorted her remains through Zamboanga streets.

* * *

Having had the privilege of knowing her since I was 12 years old from summer vacations in Balabagan, Lanao Sur where their coconut plantation is, I thank her for caring for me every time I visited Zamboanga. If I didn’t call her she’d be hurt. Offended if I didn’t stay at her home. I would call and say, "I am fine. Estoy bien, Tita." "No estate conmigo," (No stay with me) and I’d repack my clothes to sleep at her home. When I finally had a Samal kubo, she’d come to visit me for dinner or drop by to bring fruits. She’d sit in the front seat of her car, or fetch me at the boulevard to take me for evening rides in Pasonanca, Fort Pilar, Cawa-Cawa Boulevard, her resort by the sea or simply drive around at night in this city. She was like a tourist guide while I, an eager learner, observed her closely. Almost related by a relative’s intermarriage before the outbreak of World War II, my mommy and Tita Caling were long-time friends. My mom would always say that Tita Caling’s house was the nicest one around the corner of Taft Ave. and Vito Cruz. Vito Cruz was the center of student activities with La Salle College located just beside Tita Caling Lorenzo’s house. In that vicinity, a Professor Celeste owned a restaurant where athletes would hang around. Attracting students was a halo-halo carinderia by the Feria residence. Life was simpler then, Mommy Lita recalls. Two cans and a string passed for a telephone. And daily allowance was 10 cents and the end of the tranvia line was near the Meralco substation on Calle Zobel. My dad Desi remembers Tita Caling and her husband Tito were excellent swimmers.

Tita Caling’s death brought back those memories from my parents, among other people whose lives she touched. When my mother, who was with Tita Bebe Virata, walked in front of La Salle on Estrada St., which was a short distance from St. Scholastica’s School at 4:15 p.m., she was distracted by shouting and hooting La Sallites who would wave at the St. Scho girls. Instead of looking up to the third floor where the boys where, she and Tita Bebe would just wave at them with their fingertips. While relating this story, my mom couldn’t help but shed tears at the loss of someone very dear to her.

* * *

I recall getting up at 8 a.m. and savoring Tita Caling’s breakfast of hot chocolate and pandesal with lots of butter. Papaya was her favorite fruit. Sitting by her long dining table surrounded by her collection of chicken, I was so careful not to stain her dining table cloth with chocolate drops. Her chicken collection presented a softer side for this tough and hard-headed Taurean born on April 26. "No breakfast for me," I would reply. "Come, come (eat, eat), you can afford it. Estas muy flaca " meaning you’re too thin. Sinigang, chorizo, and bacon followed. And my diet forgotten and left for tomorrow again.

Mayor Lobregat, everyone’s substitute mother and aunt, liked to be abused because she also spoiled many of us. I was one of them. I once asked her six months ago in Zamboanga, "You’re wise and wealthy, would you like to pay for my dinner tomorrow night?" "OK, sigue," she replied. First it was for 20 guests, which ballooned to 30 and then 40, and finally 60 after only days of preparation. At 8 p.m., her Girl Friday of 56 years Benita had gathered a caterer, a canopy, six tables for 10 at Tita Celing’s resort, Vista del Mar, and two lechons added to my original request of adobo, carne, lumpia and salad.

As a result, the Marines and my staff had a super sumptuous dinner. Tita Celing’s daughter Dotos said, laughing, "My mom’s like that too. She invites and invites and I have to keep on adding food."

Just a few days ago, her niece Peachie Prieto and myself called Tita Caling. "I’m in the hospital," she told us. "See me when I get home." But Tita Caling never returned to Vito Cruz. My Muslim friend said, "The angels Tita Caling decorated at the plaza took her away. According to Antonio Orendain in his book Zamboanga Hermosa, that plaza was the "hub of the town’s affairs."

"The Corpus Christi processions were held around the plaza every year. It was where all main political rallies began or ended. There, too, was where the people gathered on an evening in October to listen to a program broadcast by the Zamboangaño students of Manila in honor of the Virgen del Pilar. Not every house was equipped with a radio receiving set then, and to hear a special broadcast by Zamboangueños from Manila, which was a week away by ship, was extraordinary. Many a mother wept to hear her son or daughter declaim or sing to the Lady of the Fort from so far away. One year, Isabelita Fermin recited "A La Virgen del Pilar," another year the town listened with bated breath to our Caling Lorenzo. Among the men whose voices were carried on the airwaves were Teng Generoso and Cua Atilano.

It’s no wonder then that Tita Caling sang with The Stages, a choral group from Zamboanga, her favorite song of praise for the Virgin of Pilar and her hometown Zamboanga. The song’s title is Cuidad de Zamboanga.

Des del dia de mi nasimiento
Hasta que a llega yo’y travecer...reso bien...
E amable mga jente con cariño te sirvi
Mi cuidad de Zamboanga
Des del antes popular
...Donde ay proteccion dela Virgen del Pilar
(From the day I was born until I "cross" away... I’ll pray well.... the amiable people with love serve you
My City of Zamboanga popular ever since...
Where there is protection from the Virgin of del Pilar)

May our Lord usher His daughter, Ma. Clara, to her new home above.