Fil-Am cop from 9/11 remembered in funeral

NEW YORK (AP) — A Filipino immigrant and former police officer who died five years after working 16-hour shifts amid the toxic debris of the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11 attacks was remembered by family and friends at his funeral.

But the Mass on Saturday for Cesar Borja, 52, also was a reminder of the growing number of Sept. 11 first responders reporting health problems, an issue that has politicians from Senator Hillary Clinton to Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggesting the rescue workers deserve compensation.

Borja, who was awaiting a lung transplant, died Tuesday just hours before his son Ceasar attended President George W. Bush’s State of the Union address in Washington as a guest of Clinton. Ceasar, 21, hopes to meet with Bush to discuss the ongoing health problems of workers who spent time in the World Trade Center rubble after the 2001 terrorist attack.

The elder Borja’s body was brought into St. Josaphat’s Church in the Bayside area by a police honor guard on a brisk winter morning. The officers carried his flag-draped casket into the church as police bagpipers played and one family member collapsed in tears.

"It’s so sad, but we are proud for him," said family friend Alicia Orca before the hour-long service began.

Cesar Borja, a Filipino immigrant who became a US citizen, worked double-shifts three times a week at ground zero, according to his son. The 20-year veteran developed the "World Trade Center cough" shortly after retiring in 2003, and his condition deteriorated until his death from pulmonary fibrosis, the son said.

Tom Carlstrom, a retired paramedic who also worked at ground zero, was among those who attended.

"It’s kind of frustrating," he said outside the funeral. "The government and the city are just not acknowledging what the truth is about what we breathed in down there."

Clinton and other New York lawmakers have asked Bush to include money in the national budget to treat and monitor thousands of people who say they developed respiratory and other illnesses after working at the World Trade Center site.

Lou Matarazzo, of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, also spoke to reporters at the event, arguing that Cesar Borja’s family should receive increased benefits.

"This type of death is no different than a cop being gunned down on the street," he said. "It should be covered as a line of duty death."