Flordeliza Atienza Maliwanag passes away at 85

Flordeliza Atienza Maliwanag passed on peacefully on Monday, March 1, in Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro. She was 85.

Maliwanag, mother of INQUIRER.net managing editor Dennis Maliwanag, was a retired public school teacher.

She died while in her final stage of Alzheimer’s disease, an  irreversible, progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and, eventually, the ability to carry out the simplest tasks.

She was widowed on September 18, 1982 after her businessman husband, Antonio Villegas Maliwanag, died of sudden cardiac arrest. She brought up six children single-handedly.

Madam Maliwanag, as she was fondly called, spent nearly five decades teaching schoolchildren in Dulangan II Elementary School, a public learning institution in the rural village of Dulangan II in Baco.

Aside from Dennis, her fourth child, Maliwanag is survived by children and their spouses Reynald Maliwanag and Ma. Genaline Cruz Maliwanag, Elbert Maliwanag and Dianalen Diokno, Arnold Maliwanag and Minerva Vicente Maliwanag, Orlando Maliwanag, Anna Liza Maliwanag Teves and Lito Teves, and 11 grandchildren.

Her body lies in state at the San Fernando Funeral Homes in Brgy. Libis, Calapan City. Interment will be on March 4, Thursday, at Holy Gardens Memorial Park in Calapan City.

Mrs. Flordeliza Maliwanag (second from left, front) poses for a photograph with (from left, back clockwise) grandchildren Dara Noreen Teves and Lianne Dae Teves, son-in-law Lito Teves, daughter Anna Liza Teves, grandson Steven Bruce Maliwanag, son Elbert Maliwanag and his wife Dianalen Diokno, grandchild Feana Teves, grandchild Diane Mary Mamenta, and April Rose Maliwanag-Sante.