Wycoco fighting the biggest battle of his life

National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Reynaldo Wycoco, who has been in deep coma for the past four days, is fighting what may well be the biggest battle of his life and his family is rooting for him.

Wycoco family members said they have not given up hope that the NBI director will awaken from his coma. He was confined at the Manila Doctors Hospital (MDH) after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke caused by a ruptured aneurysm on Nov. 23. As of the last medical bulletin Friday afternoon, his heart rate and blood pressure remained unstable.

"Anybody who knows my father knows that underneath the gentleness and smile, my dad is a fighter. He will fight and he is still fighting," said Mico, one of Wycoco’s three sons. His sentiment was shared by his mother Lucila, who said her husband was doing fine. "He is fighting (but) let us leave him for now."

The Wycoco family and over 50 other families, friends and NBI officials and employees led by Assistant Director Nestor Mantaring gathered for Mass yesterday afternoon at the NBI gymnasium on Taft Avenue in Manila at 3:45 p.m. yesterday. Lucila was accompanied by her four children Patricia, Voltaire, Mico and Vladimir.

In his homily, Fr. Armand Roblesa said Wycoco is now somewhere between life and the afterlife, but assured his family that he is a "peacemaker."

He advised the family and those who care for the NBI chief to leave the NBI director’s fate to the hands of God: "Surrender to the will of the Lord."

Voltaire, another of Wycoco’s sons, said: "Of course we know that, we believe that and our faith is with him that He’ll do what’s best for our family and for my dad (but) you have to understand that he’s my dad. I haven’t seen him that much for the last one and a half months so it’s a bit harder for me to let go."

He said that when he arrived from San Francisco Friday morning, before he saw the condition of his father he was very worried. "I was fearing for the worst but when I saw him he looked really good. You could tell he’s really fighting and we want him to do that. That is why we will give him all the time that he needs. We will be right beside him all the time, we are not going to leave."

In fact, he said they are hopeful because there have been signs of improvement. Apart from not looking as pale as he did on his first day at the MDH, as of yesterday, the NBI Director’s "digestive system is working, in fact he urinated and (defecated) today, that’s encouraging for us."

He said the family has full confidence in the team of doctors led by Dr. Dante Morales, a cardiologist, and his attending physician.

"We have (given) our complete trust to the doctors, they’ll just let us know what is happening. The doctors have given us every reason to hope. The people have been very hopeful and they have been around keeping our hopes up... We have not reached that point when we’re just hoping for miracles because we feel we know that he’s going to come out of this. He’ll be fine," Voltaire added.

Wycoco’s 97-year-old grandmother, Adelia Wycoco-del Rosario, traveled all the way from Cabiao, Nueva Ecija to visit her grandson at the hospital yesterday morning.

Former national police chief Director General Edgar Aglipay visited Wycoco Friday night: "I came to give moral support to the family. I hope our kababayans (countrymen) would pray for General Wycoco. When I saw him, there were apparatus attached to him but he was breathing well."