Wycoco gets hero’s burial at Libingan ng mga Bayani

National Bureau of Investigation chief Reynaldo Wycoco was buried with full military honors at noon yesterday at the Libingan ng mga Bayani national cemetery at Fort Bonifacio in Makati City.

President Arroyo and her husband First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo led dozens of mourners who included several officials, Wycoco’s town mates from Cabiao, Nueva Ecija, friends and former classmates at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA).

His wife Lucila thanked those who came for the funeral for their condolences and asked them to give her husband a standing ovation for his long years of service to the public.

The funeral began with a memorial service at 8:20 a.m. at the NBI gymnasium on Taft where Wycoco’s remains had laid in state since Thursday.

In his homily, Fr. Armand Robleza leading the service asked everyone to thank God for giving Wycoco a "wonderful life."

"Today, the general is going home to be embraced by God himself. Do not question God. We just thank him for a wonderful life. Lord, thank you for the gift, now we bring him back to you. Go home, Christian soldier, go home to your Father," Robleza told mourners.

"I am at a loss for words, maybe because of the season or maybe because of the circumstances. The reality of death is that we are at a loss for words, a loss for explanation... Death does not mean emptiness, but it is the highest form of happiness," the priest said.

Death is "just another journey, not an end. It is not one minute early, not a minute late. It comes at the appointed time. This is the appointed time for him to go home. This is a day of peace for him."

Robleza asked mourners to give Wycoco a round of applause at the end of the sermon. During her eulogy, Wycoco’s wife, Lucila, asked for a standing ovation.

Among the officials at the funeral was former NBI director and now senator Alfredo Lim and Chief Superintendent Pedro Bulaong, director of the Manila Police District.

Wycoco and Lim were the only NBI chiefs who came from the police force.

Lim and Wycoco’s brother, Police Superintendent Edgar Wycoco, chief of the MPD-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, led pallbearers in carrying the casket down a flight of stairs to the waiting hearse.

They then draped the casket with a Philippine flag.

At 10 a.m., a black Mercedez-Benz hearse bearing Wycoco’s chestnut-colored coffin pulled out of the NBI, where Wycoco laid in state since Thursday.

Wycoco’s body arrived at the national cemetery at about 11 a.m. and was placed on a flower-bedecked caisson at cemetery’s entrance for the final march.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Interior Secretary Angelo Reyes and NBI acting director Nestor Mantaring led hundreds of mourners in accompanying Wycoco to his final resting place.

Wycoco’s former PMA classmates, who acted as pallbearers, sang the military academy hymn and later dropped their black armbands on his coffin to bid him goodbye. Wycoco graduated in 1968.

His parents, family and friends sobbed as his body was lowered into the ground.

"Wykes (Wycoco to his close friends) is a very good man... He is a professional officer and true public servant. I hope many will follow his footsteps," Ermita said.

"Today we witnessed a solemn and fitting burial for General Wycoco. He is great public servant but (even) greater as a person," Reyes said.

Mantaring described Wycoco as a kindhearted man and a true professional officer dedicated to public service.

Mrs. Arroyo has yet to appoint Wycoco’s replacement, Ermita said. For the past days, several lobby groups have been endorsing their candidates for the top post.

"There’s no replacement yet. It’s still attorney Mantaring who is there as acting NBI director," Ermita said.

At a eulogy Friday night, Lucila Wycoco thanked mourners for condoling with them. "Thank you everyone for the outpouring of love and affection, and all the beautiful flowers and Mass cards. We shall miss him, but I think Wykes would not want us to be sad."

NBI assistant regional director Elfren Meneses Jr., who hosted the eulogy last Friday evening, ended the service with a symbolic radio call between the NBI headquarters and a law enforcement officer calling it a day: "Newton, Newton (the NBI headquarters radio code name): Two-zero? (What is your location?). Proceeding to Libingan ng Bayani. Signing off, Crusader (Wycoco’s code name). Roger, Crusader."