Robredo, ‘champion of the poor’

MANILA, Philippines—The late Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo died doing what he loved most, going home.

These were the words of Father Kulandairaj Ambrose, a Jamaican priest from the Missionaries of the Poor in his requiem mass in Naga City Tuesday.

The long-time friend of Robredo said he never thought his last mass before his next assignment would be his friend’s funeral mass.

Ambrose, who met Robredo in Naga City in 1992, said that the late official was a “champion of the poor.”

He recalled Robredo, who was a mayor of Naga for 19 years, as someone who was very hands on in dealing with his people even in calamities.

“In death, as in life, Sec. Jesse is a man of the ordinary people. I am humbled and honored to do this for a friend, a great man, a champion of the poor,” he said in his homily.

As an example, he cited that during typhoon Reming in 2006, Robredo came at the MOP center to check if the people there were safe.

“I couldn’t believe he would risk his own life to make sure the poor were safe. I found out later it was something he did everytime there was a typhoon,” he said.

Robredo’s family would even spend every December 25 Christmas party together with the poor.

“He was a man with a golden heart, a humble man and a man of compassion for the poor, the needy and everyone,” he said.

Robredo and two others died in a plane crash off the waters of Masbate on August 18 when he was supposedly on his way home in Naga City for the long weekend. His body was recovered three days later.