Oro waits for Nene, its 8th city mayor

By FROILAN GALLARDO, Special Correspondent
and NITZ ARANCON, Correspondent

LAGS flew at half-mast in Cagayan de Oro and Misamis Oriental yesterday, a day after the death of former Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr., the 8th mayor of Cagayan de Oro after it was chartered as a city in 1950.

The same thing happened elsewhere after Interior Secretary Eduardo Año urged all local governments across the country to “remember him (Pimentel) in your activities as we commemorate Local Government month” and urged them to “place your flags at half-mast as a sign of respect to this great advocate of local autonomy and empowerment.”

Pimentel, aside from serving as the 8th city mayor of Cagayan de Oro, had served as the first interior minister of the administration of Corazon Aquino after the 1986 Edsa Revolution that toppled the Marcos dictatorship.

Año said the entire Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) mourns Pimentel’s passing, describing him as “one of the country’s greatest political figures,” and together with President Duterte, “the country’s foremost advocate of a Federal system of government.”

Residents are eagerly awaiting the body of one of their most illustrious sons that would be brought into the city tomorrow.

The politician had served as mayor of the city from 1980 to 1984. Pimentel was preceded by the late mayor Pedro “Oloy” Roa and succeeded by his vice mayor, the late Pablo “Ambing” Magtajas who served as post-Edsa revolt mayor until 1998.

Pimentel, a lawyer credited as the “father of the Local Government Code,”  passed away at 85 in Manila Sunday morning, six days after he was placed under intensive care in a hospital.

Pimentel died at 5 am Sunday after battling lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system, according to Pimentel’s senator son and namesake Aquilino Martin III.

Kathryna Yu-Pimentel, the late statesman’s daughter-in-law, said the remains of the founder of the PartidoDemokratikong Pilipino (PDP) and former mayor, would be flown in tomorrow afternoon for a public viewing at city hall until Oct. 25.

She said the remains would then be brought back to the Heritage Memorial Park in Taguig City.

“For those who wish to pay their final respects, this is the schedule of the wake of our beloved Tatay Nene Pimentel,” Yu-Pimentel wrote on her Facebook post.

Pimentel’s wake will be at city hall starting tomorrow evening, and then the late statesman’s remains would be flown back to Metro Manila at midday Friday where he would be laid to rest, according to Councilor ZaldyOcon.

Mayor Oscar Moreno requested the family of the late senator to bring him home so residents of this city and Mindanao can pay their last respects.

Moreno said city hall was coordinating with the Pimentels.

Local officials met yesterday to organize the wake and other related activities in honor of the former mayor and senator, according to city hall spokesperson MaricelCasiño Rivera.

Both Moreno and Misamis Oriental Gov. YevgenyVincenteEmano, who took a leave of absence last week, ordered flags to fly at half mast at city hall and the capitol following Pimentel’s death.

Pimentel would have turned 86 by year-end. He was born on Dec. 11, 1933 in Claveria, Misamis Oriental.

The death of Pimentel on Sunday morning, saddened his townmates and leaders of Mindanao as they remembered with gratitude his contribution to the country as a legislator who championed local governance.

Pimentel was a delegate to the 1971 Constitutional Convention, served as mayor of Cagayan de Oro from 1980 to 1984, and was elected assemblyman, representing Misamis Oriental in the Interim BatasangPambansa in 1984. He was arrested four times under Ferdinand Marcos’s martial law.

When Marcos was ousted in February 1986, Aquino appointed him as local government minister. He was subsequently elected senator from 1987 to 1992, 1998 to 2004, and 2004 to 2010. He was Senate President when the Senate impeached the then President Joseph Estrada in 2000-2001.

Pimentel authored the Local Government Code of 1991 so as to liberate provinces, cities, municipalities and barangays from over-dependence on the central government by increasing their powers and share in the taxes and wealth of the nation.

His last government post was last year, as a member of the Duterte administration’s Consultative Committee (Concom) that reviewed the 1987 Constitution and submitted recommendations on proposed amendments towards a shift to the federal system of government.