Wycoco to be buried at Libingan ng mga Bayani

The man who served as presidential guard to the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos will be laid to rest at the Libingan ng mga Bayani at Fort Bonifacio in Makati City tomorrow, while Marcos’ family is still campaigning to have his remains buried there.

The late National Bureau of Investigation director Reynaldo Wycoco, according to NBI regional director Ricardo Diaz, was once a presidential guard at Malacañang during the Marcos regime.

It is ironic "that Director Wycoco would be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes’ Cemetery) while the former President Marcos, whom he served as a presidential guard, is still in Ilocos Norte," Diaz said yesterday.

The Marcos family has been fighting for the late strongman to be interred at the heroes’ burial ground in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City since his death in 1989. They claimed that he was once a war veteran who fought for the country.

Diaz made this statement on the third day of Wycoco’s wake. He was transferred to the NBI head office from the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters in Camp Crame at around 10:30 a.m. yesterday.

NBI officials, who all wore white barongs and black armbands, welcomed the hearse that carried Wycoco’s remains. Regional director Reynaldo Esmeralda said the black ribbon symbolizes that "we mourn the death of our boss."

Diaz said the NBI would hold a vigil throughout the three remaining days before Wycoco is buried, with each shift assigned to a division at the agency. Necrological services hosted by the Association of Harvard University Graduates were scheduled at 5 p.m. yesterday. Wycoco was a graduate of Harvard.

At 3 p.m. today, it will be the NBI’s turn to offer a necrological Mass. Among those who would give their eulogies are former NBI director Mariano Mison, Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) chairman Dante Jimenez, and NBI officer-in-charge Nestor Mantaring.

The NBI yesterday allowed non-NBI vehicles to occupy their parking lot. Wreaths lined both sides of the basketball court, where Wycoco’s casket was located, as well as the staircase and the façade of the building.

Wycoco, who introduced many changes in the NBI, was remembered by the officials and employees as a soft-spoken man who never got angry.

During his four-year term as bureau chief, Wycoco revolutionized the issuance of NBI clearances and removed the long queues of applicants by speeding up the release of the document from three days to less than a day.

He relocated the clearance center to Carriedo in Manila to decongest the number of visitors at the NBI main office and at the same time beefed up security in the compound. He purchased close-circuit televisions and installed them in strategic areas to monitor the people coming and going at these areas.

Wycoco also devolved the issuance of clearances to the local governments by setting up NBI branch offices in at least 15 city and municipal halls in the country. He also introduced the "NBI on wheels" program, wherein a vehicle would go to different far-flung areas to issue clearances.

Aside from facilitating a tie-up with Adamson University for NBI special investigators who wish to take up law, he also arranged for a 50-percent discount on all courses at the Emilio Aguinaldo College for NBI employees who have children with high grades but who could not afford the tuition for college courses.