A former provincial commander of Bukidnon was buried in the Libingan Ng Mga Bayani last Oct. 22. Gen. Crispino De Castro was assigned as commanding officer and station commander in Maramag, Bukidnon during World War II and became PC provincial commander after the war.
The burial in the heroes’ cemetery came many years after his death. Gen. De Castro preferred to be buried in the public cemetery of his hometown, Biñan, Laguna. This year, however, his ashes and the remains of his wife were buried in the Libingan Ng Mga Bayani with full military honours. His great-grand niece, Vanessa Gorra, who witnessed the event, said that it was a singular experience and a great honor.
His contributions to our country are numerous. He founded the National Police Commission, the National Police Academy of the Philippines and the Command and General Staff School of the AFP, which later became the National Defense College. He helped write the national police law of the Philippines and oversaw the rehabilitation of Corregidor Island after the war as a memorial to those who fought during WWII.
As provincial commander of Bukidnon, he was known to be the ultimate professional even toward POWs and his loweranked staff. As founder and first commissioner of the National Police Commission, he ensured the professional training of the country’s police force and structured it in such a way that it will not be beholden to political leaders such as mayors due to opportunities for abuse.
His family remembers him as an honest person. He refused the appointment from former President Ferdinand Marcos to become the head of the Customs Police due to the entrenched corruption in the agency. As general, he fought hard against corruption within the military.
His daughter, Bernarditas Muller, who negotiates multilateral environmental agreements and sustainable development in the UN including the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, remembers that his father abhorred all corruption in government and in the Armed Forces.
He was a member of the Constitutional Commission organized by former President Corazon Aquino. “He told us that whenever the word “truth” appears in the Philippine Constitution, he was the one who added it there,” says Muller.
Gen. De Castro had deep connections to Cagayan de Oro due to his sister, Natividad De Castro, who married Jose Gorra, and settled in the city. One of their children is Annie Gorra, author of the newly published novel, The Mystery on 17th Street, and a grandchild is Kerstin Gorra Vokinger, the first Kagay-anon to graduate with a master’s degree in law from Harvard University in Boston. (pr)
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