June Keithley-Castro passes away

MANILA, Philippines – Veteran broadcaster June Keithley-Castro passed away early Sunday evening.

Reports said Keithley who was battling breast cancer died around 6:50 p.m.

Keithley played a vital role during the crucial hour of the Edsa People Power 1 that toppled the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.

On learning of the passing of Keithley-Castro, Malacañang issued a statement expressing its sadness.

“June Keithley-Castro’s battle with cancer–which she had waged since 2009–is at an end. To her last breath she exemplified courage and faith. Her courage enabled her to confront her illness, but also that of her husband, Angelo Castro Jr., whose death we all mourned in 2012, with dignity and the kind of serenity that can only come from an uncompromising faith in the goodness of God and trust in His plan for all things,” it said.

In paying her tribute, Malacañang said the nation in extending the deepest sympathy to her children.

“As she herself recounted, June Keithley rediscovered her faith in 1985, when her son asked her to accompany him to the Quirino Grandstand for the consecration of the nation to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“From there, her reawakening to her faith accompanied the period of national redemption and liberation that brought forth the Miracle of EDSA: that peaceful revolution which was marked by her voice on Radio Bandido. There, in the isolation of a radio studio, together with two brave children, she spoke truth to power for 14 hours, heedless of the danger of contesting the media apparatus of the dictatorship.

“From the moment she played the ‘Mambo Magsaysay’ on air in February, 1986, to the moment when, a quarter of a century later, she was honored at the EDSA Commemoration this year, June Keithley’s courage and faith sustained her as a voice that would not be silenced.”

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