Primicias, former governor, dies; 82

DAGUPAN CITY—The late former Pangasinan Gov. Cipriano “Tito” Primicias Jr. is home for good.

On Dec. 12, he will be buried in a private lot near the public cemetery of Sta. Barbara, his hometown.

Primicias died of cardiac arrest in the hospital here on Dec. 3. He was 82.

“He really wanted to be buried in Sta. Barbara. Our family has a mausoleum in Manila, where our parents and a brother were buried, and we assumed that he’d also like to be buried there,” said Marietta Primicias-Goco, Primicias’ sister.

“But I just discovered recently that he had built his own grave in that corner lot near the public cemetery. We realized that he wanted to be buried in Pangasinan because he loved this province so much,” Goco said.

Primicias’ body was taken to his house in Barangay Banaoang in Sta. Barbara on Sunday, after lying in state at a chapel of St. John Cathedral here since Dec. 4.

His remains were taken to the provincial capitol in Lingayen town, where a necrological service was held by the provincial government.

Primicias first served as Pangasinan representative from 1961 to 1965. He was reelected in 1965 but did not finish his term when he ran and won as governor in 1967.

Goco said Primicias was known for his honesty when he served as governor.

“He never stole a single centavo from government coffers. Our tradition in the family was that when you serve, you do not get money from government coffers,” she said.

When martial law was declared in 1972, Goco said her brother migrated to Canada, where he lived in a basement and did manual labor to survive. Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon