Noynoy "unites" Osmeña siblings

CEBU, Philippines - The visit of President Benigno Aquino III to the wake of Lourdes de la Rama-Osmeña, mother of Senator Serge Osmeña III and Cebu Rep. Tomas Osmeña, at the Redemptorist Church in Bacolod City last Thursday was “historic.”

This is because it served as an opportunity for members of the Osmeña family to their photograph taken together after a long time. The Osmeña siblings do not see each other often.

“It’s the first time and I think it had to be PNoy who got the whole family to sit together and have a family picture together which is historic. I really appreciate that he really came all the way here,” said Georgia, the youngest of the Osmeña siblings.

“When we were standing in the front of the coffin of my mom with the President, in my mind I told Mommy…I said, you know you always stayed out of politics but the President of the Philippines is now standing before you and I really appreciate that,” she said.

She said it was an honor for the family to be graced by Aquino’s presence despite the President’s busy schedule.

“I really appreciate him more, although I know him, as his grandmother is my godmother in baptism, for him to come over I really appreciate that,” Georgia disclosed.

Serge, meanwhile, said only their brother Steve was not around that day, but he met his mother’s remains in Cebu yesterday. The Osmeña matriarch will be laid to rest today.

Another Osmeña daughter, Maria Victoria, described their mom as a woman “with a lot of class.”

“She always upholds dignity and she told us how to pray. We had to pray the rosary everyday at 6 p.m. as a family or else you’ll get punished. She always told us that we should never do anything that would make us ashamed of our name. She was very well brought up. She was very strict, stricter than my father. But what mother used to make me do, which is why I think she has all the reasons to care for me a lot is that she  didn’t want politics,” she said. 

“So I was the one who’s doing all the work that I was like my father’s right hand. I was even telling Secretary Mar Roxas that I don’t know his generation but I know your father’s generation. I know Ninoy very well because I was always with my father. And that basically what I did, taking the place of my mother in politics,” she narrated.

When asked that their mom’s death and the president’s visit was an opportunity for the whole family to be together, she said, “Well we are together.  Only, people are different and this is one thing that I as my father’s daughter I’ve learned is how to roll with the punches in as far as my siblings are concerned. Because it’s totally waste of time to fight with your siblings,” she said.

“As you very well know, you can pick your friends but you can’t pick your relatives and I think that a mother is a very important person because we all come from her. A mother can take care of five children but a child can’t take care of many mothers,” she said further.

“Since my father passed away, I always assumed his role.  When they have problems I just ignore it and I just listen to all of them and take them all as different people and respect their opinions,” she added.

Mrs. Osmeña, 98, succumbed to multiple organ failure secondary to sepsis, and acute respiratory failure secondary to pneumonia high risk, at the Pablo O. Torre Memorial Hospital (Riverside Hospital) last Sunday.

She is the wife of the late Senator Sergio Osmeña Jr. She is survived by her five children, Tomas, Sergio (Serge), Maria Victoria (Minnie), Esteban (Steve), and Georgia.

After her husband Sergio Jr., son of former President Sergio Osmeña, died in 1984, Mrs. Osmeña returned to Bacolod to live and run the family farms and business.  (FREEMAN)