Will Halina Perez ever find peace?

To die is to rest. But not for Halina Perez, whose mortal remains and – if we are to believe reports –even personal possessions had become the subject of a tug-of-war among family members.

In my column last Saturday, I already shared with The Philippine Star readers the sad life of Halina Perez (born Vanessa May Uri) –starting from the time she was four when her parents separated up to her father’s two-time incarceration.

Unfortunately, even in death, she has yet to find peace. This writer, with the help of the Startalk crew got a peek into the tension and even in-fighting going on among the Uri family members over the weekend while a vigil was being held in the hometown of the actress.

Last Friday night–the day after Halina’s tragic death–Startalk got word that Halina’s mother, Mildred del Moro, was arriving from Hong Kong via Philippine Airline’s evening flight. We immediately dispatched segment producer Baby Briones and cameraman Richard Arollado to meet her at the airport. The trouble was no one among the people in the production staff had a picture of Mildred del Moro. Baby and Richard merely worked on the tip that she looked very much like Halina Perez (which turned out to be true and you’ll agree with me if you saw Ms. Del Moro in her TV interviews).

Thanks to that tip, Baby and Richard were able to single out Mildred from the arriving passengers at the lobby of the NAIA 2. She gladly accepted Startalk’s offer to give her a ride to Halina’s condominium unit at the Main Building in Pinaglabanan in San Juan.

Taking the EDSA route, she wept when the vehicle passed in front of SM Megamall because according to her, that was where she and Halina had spent so many happy moments together–shopping, eating and just being together as mother and daughter.

From the San Juan condominium, she and the Startalk crew decided to pay their final respects to Isaac Munio Jr., Halina’s talent manager who had perished with her in that accident. Munio’s body was lying in state at his beauty shop in Aurora Blvd.

From there, Mildred–still accompanied by Startalk–proceeded to Sta. Maria, Laguna to finally see the remains of Halina. She slept through most of the trip.

At around midnight, Mildred was finally in the Uri residence in Sta. Maria, Laguna where the wake for Halina was being held. It was her estranged husband’s territory and all around were his relatives, who mercifully enough were polite and civil to her. Her ex-husband, Rene, however, would not set foot in the house while she was there. But Mildred couldn’t care less. Looking at Halina’s lifeless body in a silver gray casket, she broke down and wept.

At 3:30 a.m., she decided to leave. She wanted to proceed to her house in Lucena, Quezon, but in her hurry to see her daughter’s remains in Laguna, she had forgotten her luggage in the San Juan condominium.

The following day, I personally went to Sta. Maria, Laguna myself. I went via Rizal province, which turned out to be a fast and pleasant drive.

I reached Sta. Maria, Laguna after lunch and as soon as I got in front of the house where Halina’s wake was being held, I was stopped by Baby Briones who wanted to warn me not to go in first because the relatives of Halina already had enough of media people barging in and out of their residence. Only the night before, they felt very annoyed when a news team brought in several pieces of huge equipment and had practically taken over their home. Well, I was coming in to pay my last respects to Halina as a friend who had been with her since the time she was starting out in her career.

Fortunately, I was allowed in, but their doormat – if they had one – would probably have spelled out Go Away! instead of the usual Welcome (in our desire to give in to the Uri family members’ request to stay away, we had to do my opening spiels in front of Frank’s burger stand, where signal was hopelessly bad).

The house – once burned down by Halina’s father during the time he was still on drugs – is a two-story concrete structure. In one corner of the living room was Halina’s casket. Her dress had to be changed because the first one – bought in Tagkawayan, Quezon (where she was declared dead on arrival) looked like a nightgown and for the first two nights of her wake, she had to be covered all the way to her chest with a white satin sheet.

But she was already dressed beautifully in embroidered jusi by the time I got to see her. The first thing I noticed was how beautifully she looked with her unscarred face. But there was an unmistakable grimace on her face. For a while, after hearing the news that she was asleep when the accident happened, I felt relieved that she probably didn’t feel anything when she died. But maybe I was wrong to have assumed that because of that pained look on her face. The poor girl must have suffered in that accident. Or maybe–just maybe–she was unhappy with all that fighting going on around her.

I was still in the middle of my prayers when I heard the first hostile remark aimed toward my direction. It was from a male relative who did not speak directly to me, but whose nasty remarks pierced quite sharply through the air anyway and eventually hit its mark. Bull’s eye. But I told myself I wouldn’t be bothered.

My concern was to be able to give my condolences to Halina’s father, Rene. To my relief, he welcomed me warmly. He remembered me from the time Startalk and I facilitated his reconciliation with his daughter in 2000.

Rene told me that if it were possible for him to kill himself so his daughter may come back to life, he would have gladly done it without hesitation. He also had with him a list of grievances against people who had supposedly taken advantage of Halina when she was still alive and, yes, he felt very bad that everyone was fighting for Halina’s mortal remains. "Bakit Kailangan pang mag-stopover kung saan-saan?" he reasoned out.

Rene Uri seemed to have changed a lot (for the better it would seem) since the first time I met him. But he is a man now in pain – grieving for the loss of his daughter and the family infighting is driving him at his wit’s end.

Death usually brings reconciliation among feuding family members. But in the case of Halina’s death, it is sadly working the other way.

Tomorrow afternoon, Halina will be laid to rest at the Sta. Maria, Laguna Catholic Cemetery. Maybe it’s not yet too late for the family members – particularly her parents – to forgive and forget past hurts.

Maybe that’s all it would take for that pained look on Halina’s face to be erased.