MANILA, Philippines – The late Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo will receive the “highest kind of funeral” the government can give, the Palace confirmed Wednesday, August 22, after his family agreed to President Benigno Aquino III’s proposal to give Robredo a state funeral. 

“It is the kind that is given to heroes, for example,” explained Communications Undersecretary Manolo Quezon in a press briefing in Malacañang.

A historian, Quezon said the law specifies the following persons as recipients of state funerals: presidents, vice presidents, speakers of the House, Senate presidents, national artists, and medal of valor winners. But it is also the President’s prerogative “to grant a state funeral to those who are considered worthy,” Quezon said.

The state will shoulder all expenses for Robredo’s funeral.

Robredo, who has over 140 awards and citations to his name, is one of the most awarded local Filipino leaders. A former mayor of Naga City, he received Asia’s version of the Nobel Prize – the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service – in August 2000.

He is also recognized for having lifted Naga from a third class to a first class city. (Watch related video below.)

One of the honors given Robredo, Quezon explained, is to have an honor guard from the Philippine National Police watch over his remains in the Archbishop’s Palace in Naga City. Departure and arrival honors will also be provided Robredo. He will be transferred to Manila and brought back to Naga, so his family, friends, and other Filipinos can pay their final respects.

Quezon said Robredo’s coffin will be brought from Naga to Malacañang on Friday, August 24, and will be returned to Naga on Sunday, August 26. Robredo will be buried on Tuesday, August 28, with state honors that include an escort battalion and other rituals.

In a bulletin issued Tuesday evening, August 21, the Palace released the following details of Robredo’s wake in Naga:

Wednesday, August 22

• 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. – Mass
• 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. – wake
• 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. – Mass
• 6:00 p.m. onwards – wake

Thursday, August 23

• 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. – Mass
• 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. – wake
• 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. – Mass
• 6:00 p.m. onwards – wake

Friday, August 24

• 9:00 a.m. – Remains to be transported from Naga City to Malacañang

Robredo died in a plane crash last Saturday, August 18, and was retrieved underwater Tuesday, August 21.

(Watch video of Robredo’s wake in Naga below.)

A book of condolence for Robredo will also be opened in various Philippine consulates and embassies, Quezon said.

Other VIP funerals

Earlier, President Benigno Aquino III declared National Days of Mourning from August 21 until the day Robredo is buried. The Palace explained the funeral for Robredo should be “commensurate with the people’s affection and admiration for him.”

When former President Corazon Aquino died in 2009, the Arroyo administration likewise offered her family a state funeral. But then Senator Benigno Aquino III, now the President, said the family opted for a private funeral.

“For all intentions and purposes, she had been a private citizen after stepping down, and (perhaps) to a degree we would like to spend as much time as possible as a family with her,” Aquino explained then, in an interview posted by ABS-CBN. But Aquino noted honor guards would attend to his mother’s wake – a tradition in wakes for former government officials. 

In 2003, Arroyo also gave the late Foreign Secretary Blas Ople a state funeral. Ople was supposed to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes’ Cemetery) but his family opted to have him buried in Bulacan, his hometown, as he had wished. – Rappler.com

Related Stories:

• ‘Abrasado did everything he could’
• Aika Robredo: Family ‘at peace’
• The day Naga found out Robredo died
• National Days of Mourning for Robredo
• Jesse Robredo’s journey back home
• Pilots’ families in deep sorrow
• PNoy’s promises to Robredo’s wife
• Robredo family: We’re bracing for worst