MANILA, Philippines – The memorial chapel where former Lamitan mayor Rosita “Rose” Furigay lies was dark on Wednesday, July 27, due to a power outage, but mourners steadily gathered to visit the late ex-mayor, who was killed on her daughter Hannah’s graduation day.

The Furigay family’s lawyer had told media that the former mayor was shot in the head and chest, but her body lay serenely in the open casket, almost as if she died peacefully.

“I did her make-up,” Furigay’s daughter, 25-year-old Kelsey, said. Kelsey had sometimes done her mother’s make-up before. She and her twin sister Hannah were fond of beauty, and shared the interest with their mother, whom they felt was like a sister, too.

Rose Furigay was one of three killed in a gun shooting incident on Sunday, July 24, just before the Ateneo Law School graduation of Hannah at the Loyola campus in Quezon City. The former mayor’s aide Victor Capistrano and Ateneo security guard Jeneven Bandiala were also killed in the tragedy, while Hannah survived three gunshots.

Rose leaves behind her twins and her husband, current Lamitan Mayor Roderick “Oric” Furigay.

“We are devastated. Words can’t express how broken we feel. My dad is so heartbroken because he loved my mom so much. They were partners in everything,” Kelsey said.

As of Friday morning, July 29, Hannah continues to recover in a hospital, and while stable, is due for another surgery in a few weeks. It is important to the family that Hannah sees her mom soon, especially as her remains are set to be brought back to Basilan.

July 24, from Kelsey’s eyes

The Furigays were planning to all go together to Hannah’s graduation, but a two-guests-per-graduate rule due to COVID-19 protocols made the twins decide Kelsey would follow in post-graduation family celebrations instead, while their parents attended the ceremony. It was supposed to be a relaxing Sunday at home for Kelsey until then.

Hannah and her parents spent time at a restaurant before heading to Ateneo, and Rose and Hannah were excited to head to school early to take some photos. But Roderick needed to use the restroom, and mother and graduating daughter couldn’t wait for him. They went ahead in the first car. Roderick followed them in a second car, not knowing what would await them.

At around 2:30 pm, Hannah called Kelsey, saying the guards allowed the family to go inside the campus without verifying the guest list they filled up prior to the event. 

“Kelsey, come! I think you can come inside,” Kelsey recalled Hannah telling her. It was followed by a request from their mother, saying, “Kels, Hannah’s shoes. We forgot the shoes. Please bring it.”

Kelsey packed the shoes, and looked for an outfit to wear for her sister’s big day. Moments later, her preparations were interrupted by a surge of unsettling texts.

“Hannah got shot?”

“Kels, are you okay?”

Kelsey, shaken by the messages, was trying to process what was happening. She called Hannah, and then her mother. No response. It was around 3 pm, just minutes after Hannah called to tell her she could come, and just after her mother had asked her to bring her sister’s shoes.

Kelsey then called her father, who picked up.

“I asked ‘What’s happening?’ His voice was shaking, and he told me, ‘I don’t know anak, come here.’ He was holding my mom. And then he just told me to come now. Then I said, ‘Okay, I’ll drive.’ ‘Do not drive! Just don’t drive!’ he told me. I said, ‘Why? What’s happening?’ and he said, ‘Just come,’” Kelsey said.

Crying and in a panic, Kelsey grabbed her bag and booked a ride-hailing service to go to Ateneo. In the car, Kelsey was frantic and apologized to the driver, who told her that it was okay that she cried.

Kelsey repeatedly called her father with a single question on loop: What’s happening? “Hannah, Hannah, your mom…critical. Critical,” was what Kelsey could make out from her father’s voice. He then told her to proceed to a certain hospital.

Kelsey immediately asked the driver to change course to the hospital instead, to which the driver obliged. “Kels, your mom, your mom’s not okay. She’s not okay,” Roderick told Kelsey, who was still far away.

Hannah’s twin could not do much except call their dad and send messages to Hannah’s friends and others who might have been with her. She could not count how many calls she had made to her father during that car ride. As Kelsey told her dad she was near, she heard his voice break.

“Kels, your mom, I don’t…” he said. “I think she’s gone.”

Kelsey shouted and wailed in the car. She felt the driver was driving his fastest for her to make it until finally, she arrived at the hospital her dad had directed her to.

“I saw my dad at the entrance. And he just looked at me, shaking his head. And then I ran to him, and I just cried. And I just wailed. I was shouting in the hospital. I was crying, and I looked back, and I saw my mom’s body,” she said.

“I just fell to the floor. I fell, and people were holding me, and my knees, I couldn’t even stand. I couldn’t believe it. I thought it was Hannah kasi, the whole way I thought it was her. And then it was my mom. And I didn’t even have a chance to process it,” she added.

Kelsey took a few minutes to let everything out. Her father told her, “Be strong. Go to Hannah now.” Kelsey couldn’t bear leaving her mom, but Roderick insisted, as Hannah was brought to a different hospital and did not have family with her.

Heartbroken, Kelsey left her parents to see her twin, her life partner, her “womb-mate,” as they fondly called each other. 

“Where’s Hannah? Is she talking? Is she okay?” Kelsey asked after running to the next hospital. She had yet to know how exactly Hannah was harmed, and did not even think yet to ask who did this to her. Her only concern was if Hannah would survive.

While Hannah was in the operating room, Kelsey paced back and forth, still in the high heels she put on for Hannah’s graduation.

Some hours later, the medical staff informed Kelsey about the injuries Hannah sustained and explained all the medical terms. Hannah was grazed by one bullet near her eye and was shot twice in the abdomen. Kelsey asked again: Will she be okay?

Finally, they assured Kelsey that Hannah would make it.

“I think if I lost my sister, I don’t even know. I don’t know what I would be,” Kelsey said.

Partners

Kelsey and her mom were close, as they shared a passion for business and an interest in interior design. The two designed their homes together. They also traveled often. Hannah and their mom were also close, with Hannah being the “acting youngest child” as she was the only one still in school. Rose would go out of her way to buy things her girls needed, even if they didn’t ask for it.

For Kelsey, politician Rose Furigay was a hands-on mom who was proud of her daughters. She was the type to call often, nag about outfits and schedules, and check if her children had taken their vitamins and medicines.

“I didn’t appreciate it so much then, but now, I know that no one’s going to do that to me,” Kelsey said, holding back tears.

Kelsey saw her parents’ marriage as “the definition of eternal love.” The way that Rose and Roderick were partners in the family, Kelsey said she and Hannah were like partners, too. They were by each other’s sides in the big and small things in life – from studies, relationships, to fashion and beauty. They were each other’s emergency contacts.

But while they were twins and partners, they also shared a lot of differences. Kelsey was the extrovert, while Hannah was the introvert. They were treading different life paths. The two don’t even look identical, Kelsey thinks.

“I always say, she’s like my better half. I think she also says that about me. Together we’re like a whole. That’s how we always saw each other,” Kelsey said.

The Lamiteños’ mother

The Furigay couple has been leading Lamitan City for almost 20 years – even longer than Lamitan’s time as a city, when it was categorized as such in June 2007. Roderick served three consecutive terms from 2004 to 2013, and was succeeded by Rose, who also maxed out her terms until 2022. Roderick assumed the mayorship again following the recent elections in May.

“Kels, the people. If you just see the people, they need us,” Kelsey recalls her mom always telling them. It was like she shared her parents with the city, she said.

Rose monitored the city similar to the way she took care of her kids. Through cameras, Rose would look at a spot and think, “This is dirty, it should be cleaned.” As they rode around the city, Kelsey said her mom spotted things she wanted fixed, and made sure everything was in order. 

“She’s really a mom to the city, and the city was like her house,” Kelsey said, adding she was proud of her.

Victor Capistrano, who was in his 40s and who also lost his life on July 24, was not only Rose’s executive assistant, but her best friend, too, according to Kelsey. “Kuya Victor” was present in all of Kelsey’s and Hannah’s graduations – from pre-school, elementary, high school, and college.

“[Hannah’s] law school graduation would have been the last. He was so excited too for Hannah. He always takes our photos and takes selfies,” Kelsey said.

When Rose finished her term in June, Kelsey remembered her mom telling them that she was relieved to finally focus on their family. 

Hannah, aspiring environmental lawyer

On July 24, the Furigays were supposed to watch Hannah march in Ateneo with honors from her law school.

Hannah obtained her undergraduate degree in legal management from Ateneo in Loyola in 2018. She was a photojournalist for The GUIDON, Ateneo’s official student publication. One of the stories she took photos for in The GUIDON was a 2017 piece about minorities in Muslim Mindanao, where her mother was interviewed as mayor.

https://theguidon.com/1112/main/2017/09/minorities-in-the-bangsamoro/

As Hannah moved on to Ateneo Law, one of the classes she took was International Environmental Law. According to lawyer Tony La Viña, professor of that class, Hannah excelled at participating in climate negotiation games and climate justice moot courts.

La Viña described her as “brilliant, insightful, articulate, and passionate.” Hannah aced her final oral exam for his class, and La Viña gave her the highest grade alongside a few of her classmates. He called her one of his “star students.”

Hannah was also part of the team representing Ateneo Law School in the Southeast Asian regional rounds of the Stetson Environmental Moot Court Competition in January 2021. The team was qualified to compete in the competition’s international round.

“Hannah was definitely interested in environmental law as her thesis on the rights of nature was brilliant. I think her being from Mindanao and Basilan formed the way she thought of law and its connection to nature, land, and even people,” La Viña told Rappler in an email.

According to Kelsey, Hannah’s dream to pursue environmental law was a constant discussion between her and her mother, as the latter asked if she was sure of her choice. In the Philippines, environmental law is not the safest nor most popular path, but Hannah was steadfast in her advocacy. Kelsey said that for Hannah, environmental rights needed to be talked about more.

Disinformation, and real-life danger

Before Rose Furigay was killed on Sunday, their family already knew of shooter-suspect Dr. Chao Tiao Yumol as a “troll.”

In a July 24 interview with ABS-CBN, Furigay’s legal counsel Quirino Esguerra said that the shooting might have been rooted in a personal grudge Yumol had against the Furigays. 

In 2018, Furigay ordered the closure of Yumol’s infirmary clinic as it was operating without a permit from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Yumol “posted malicious insinuations” about them, which led to the Furigays filing more than 70 cyber libel cases against the doctor, Esguerra said in the ABS-CBN interview.

Yumol was a verified figure on Facebook, where he claimed the Furigays were involved in corruption and illegal drugs. Kelsey told Rappler on Wednesday that Yumol even posted about her. Yumol alleged that Kelsey, who works in business, used her businesses for illegal drug operations. In an interview with ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo, Mayor Furigay dismissed Yumol’s drug claims as “baseless.”

“We knew of him, but we didn’t know he would take it this far,” Kelsey said. 

La Viña said that the shooting needed to be condemned “as strongly as possible.”

“We must also condemn those who then propagated a narrative of a killer who was justified in his actions because of an imagined injustice (the closure of his clinic which was not even an act by the Lamitan city government but of the BARMM) or because of baseless accusations,” he said.

A Rappler investigation found that narratives of Yumol portrayed as a “hero” circulated around social media after the attack. In the analysis, over half of the posts mentioning Yumol on Facebook support or sympathize with him, and almost half of the videos on YouTube mentioning him are supportive.

Days after the Sunday attack, Facebook took down Yumol’s page. Yumol has been indicted by Quezon City prosecutors and now faces charges for murder, frustrated murder, carnapping, carrying a gun outside residence without a permit, and malicious mischief.

La Viña said that the late ex-mayor’s governance record was “exemplary” for everyone to see. “That her reputation and that of the Furigay family is unfairly tainted through social media by architects of disinformation who have their own agenda is disturbing,” he said.

“Don’t believe everything that you read online right away. Killing – there’s no excuse for it. He does not have a right to take a life. I want the public to do their research, to know that my mom was a mom. My mom was a wife, a sister, and a friend. She was also a human being. How can people just talk about it like it’s nothing?” Kelsey said.

“I just want our voices to be heard. I want justice for Mom. I want people to know that we are grieving with them, and we are so heartbroken,” she added. – Rappler.com