Osmeña matriarch to be buried in family mausoleum

Three of the five children of the late Lourdes dela Rama Osmeña agreed to have her burial in Cebu City after attending her wake at the Redemptorist Church social hall in Bacolod City yesterday.

Her remains will be brought to Cebu by Thursday afternoon.

Georgia Osmeña, the youngest, said she talked with her brothers Rep. Tomas Osmeña of Cebu City’s south district and Sen. Sergio Osmeña III and they agreed that their mother should be buried at the Doña Pepang Osmeña mausoleum in barangay Carreta.

Georgia said she is planning to hold the two-day wake at the Sacred Heart Chapel along D. Jakosalem street but she has not finalized it yet.

The funeral rites will be scheduled on Saturday, she said.

“I said let’s bring her to Cebu because my dad is there and our eldest sister Natividad is there and besides no one is based in Bacolod,” Georgia said.

The other siblings Stevie and Minnie were not around when the burial arrangement was made. Minnie, who is in New York, is expected to arrive on Thursday.

While Rep. Tomas Osmeña said they should wait until Minnie arrived, he said he doesn’t object that their mother be buried in Cebu City.

Georgia said her mother said she wanted to be buried in Iloilo beside her father, the late senator Esteban dela Rama, a decade ago.

Their mother lived in Bacolod since their father, the late senator Sergio “Serging” Osmeña Jr. died of respiratory failure in Los Angeles, California.

Georgia said their mother concentrated on managing their farm until her condition deteriorated.

Georgia said their mother was hospitalized for pneumonia and osteoporosis in December 2007 and was bedridden since then.

Last year, she barely could speak because of tubes attached to her. She died after nurses bathed her at the hospital. Lourdes Osmeña was 98 years old.

Her remains will be brought to Cebu on Thursday.

A vigil will be held but the family has not decided where the wake will be held in Cebu City. Only close family and friends visited the wake in Bacolod City.

“It’s very simple. Only relatives of my mom’s and some friends,” Georgia said.

Rep. Osmeña and his wife Councilor Margot Osmeña are scheduled to arrive in Cebu today while brother Serge will report to the Senate in Manila.

Rep. Osmeña said their mother is a private person who shunned the limelight.

He said he doesn’t object that her wake be held at the Sacred Heart Church in Jakosalem.

“She would have wanted that her wake be near the church,” Osmeña said. /Marian Z. Codilla and Edison delos Angeles