Two women fight over Ignacio Arroyo’s body

The women in the life of Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo are both claiming his remains.

Alicia “Aleli” Arroyo, the lawmaker’s estranged wife, and her lawyer Lorna Kapunan failed in their mission to bring his body home from London because the director of the mortuary would not turn it over to them.

The director was said to be acting under the instruction of Grace Ibuna, Ignacio’s longtime companion who was at his bedside when he was taken off life support on Jan. 26. The director allegedly continued to recognize Ibuna as the lawmaker’s next of kin because Alicia Arroyo failed to show proof that her marriage had not been annulled.

Ibuna wanted to have the lawmaker’s remains cremated, according to Kapunan.

But Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo on Saturday told the Inquirer in Manila that his younger brother’s body would be brought home by the latter’s eldest child, Bianca, either Sunday or Monday.

“I think they (Aleli and Kapunan) will come home empty-handed. It is Bianca who will bring her father’s body here in a day or two,” he said.

Bianca is Ignacio’s daughter by his first wife, Marilyn Jacinto, a sister of rock musician, businessman and radio DJ Ramon “RJ” Jacinto. Mike Arroyo sent her last week to London to arrange for the repatriation of her father’s body.

Ignacio’s marriage to Marilyn Jacinto has been annulled.

No cremation

Mike Arroyo refused to comment on the public dispute between the women that his brother had left behind. But he was insistent that the body be brought home intact.

“I called my niece, Bianca, about [the supposed planned cremation], and she told me that it was not true. She said she was coming home with her father and she told me there will be no cremation,” he said.

Ibuna has been accused by Alicia Arroyo’s camp of misrepresenting herself as Ignacio’s wife.

Ignacio and Alicia Arroyo had been separated for six years but their marriage is still legally valid.

Alicia Arroyo and her lawyer flew to London last week and announced that they would take full control of the funeral arrangements and bar Ibuna from the memorial services.

According to Alicia Arroyo’s text message to reporters, the body would have arrived on Saturday and brought immediately to the family residence in La Vista, Quezon City, for the first of a series of wakes before interment at the North Cemetery in Manila late this week.

‘Ignacito’

It had never occurred to Mike Arroyo that his beloved brother would die ahead of him at 61.

“Our Ignacito loved life so much. He lived it to the full. It was a shock that he died so soon. He was too young to die,” Mike Arroyo, the husband of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, told the Inquirer.

The last time the brothers spoke was on Jan. 21, or five days before the lawmaker was rushed to the London Clinic after suffering cardiac arrest and eventually being taken off life support.

“He was still in high spirits then. He told me he was getting better and that his medicines were working well. I was shocked when I got a call that he was clinically dead,” said Mike Arroyo, who announced his brother’s death on Jan. 26.

Mike Arroyo said that his brother rarely complained about health problems and that he did not know the latter was suffering cirrhosis of the liver.

He said it was his wife, the former President, who had noticed that his brother was in poor health in a family reunion last year: “She told me Iggy did not look so good [and needed] a checkup. Iggy went to St. Luke’s [Medical Center] and it was there he was told that he had to get a liver transplant.”

Mike Arroyo said the lawmaker was always there for him and his wife when they were sick and needed to stay in hospital.

“He was always beside me when I had heart surgery. He was a caring person. It’s just sad I couldn’t do the same favor for him. I would have gone with him to London but I could not,” said Mike Arroyo, who is barred by the government from traveling overseas because of the cases filed against him in court.

The lawmaker was the first from his family to appeal in public for the government to allow the former President to seek medical treatment abroad for her lingering neck ailment.

Playful, affectionate

The lawmaker was born on October 24, 1950, the youngest in the Tuason-Arroyo brood of three. (The middle child is Marilou, a former party-list representative.) Except for a span of almost a decade, when Ignacio stayed in the United States for his high school and college education and married his first wife and settled down in Canada, the brothers were inseparable.

“We were the best of friends since he was a toddler,” Mike Arroyo said. “He fought with my sister but never with me. We got along so well early on. He always tagged along with me and he hung out with my friends.”

Mike Arroyo said his brother was not only pilyo (playful) in their growing-up years but also cariñoso (affectionate).

“He used to wake me and my sister up with hugs and kisses, which he continued to do even when we became adults. He also liked climbing up on my back. And I can still hear his giggles and shouts when I tried to shake him off,” Mike Arroyo said, adding that he felt Iggy’s presence days after the latter’s death when he awoke with the sensation of his feet being tickled.

Mike Arroyo said his brother was also more daring than he: “We rode on motorcycles in tandem but he could perform tricks I couldn’t do, like driving with hands off the handle bars or standing on the seat.”

Ladies’ man

And between the two of them, Mike Arroyo said, his brother was by far the better ladies’ man.

“We went out on double dates and I could see how easy it was for him to hit it off with the ladies when we were teenagers,” Mike Arroyo said.

He described his brother as a good man—mabait na tao—and said he could not remember having seen the latter in a fight with anyone.

The lawmaker was proud of his work and his constituents cared for him, according to Mike Arroyo. He was on his third and final term as representative of the fifth district of Negros Occidental, and planned to take a break for one term and then run again in 2016.

“I will miss him a lot, my younger brother, and I will miss his angelic smile the most. His smile can light up a room, a very big room,” Mike Arroyo said.

First posted 12:10 am | Sunday, February 5th, 2012