Cebu City under state of mourning

CEBU, Philippines —  Mayor Michael Rama has declared a state of mourning in Cebu City starting tomorrow until Friday due to the passing of mayor Edgardo Labella.

Labella’s wake will be transferred from the Crystal Palace in Lahug to the City Hall on Wednesday for a two-day public viewing before his burial on Friday.

For the last time, Labella will return to the place where people from different walks of life would go to see him for different reasons or purposes when he was the city’s chief executive for more than two years.

Rama said a team composed of his trusted individuals and also the late mayor’s trusted individuals at City Hall is preparing for the three days and two nights event to ensure an organized and seamless flow.

“We anticipate that our constituents, from the hinterlands and the lowlands, would want to view one last time their elected Mayor whose term got interrupted by his untimely death,” said Rama.

The Cebu City Police Office said some roads near the City Hall will be closed to traffic during the entire duration of Labella’s wake.

CCPO director Colonel Josefino Ligan said parking will not be allowed near Plaza Sugbo and the City Hall square in anticipation of the influx of people who pay their last respects to the mayor.

“Given the directive of Mayor Mike Rama, there will be streets nga ipang close, and there will be areas designated for parking and it was emphasized that the whole city hall square and the Plaza Sugbo, no vehicles will be parked,” said Ligan.

The City Council, now headed by Vice Mayor Donaldo Hontiveros, is also working on the necrological service in honor of Labella.

A Mass at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral is scheduled at 1 pm on Friday before the late mayor’s interment at Golden Haven Memorial Park.

Labella passed away at 4 a.m. on November 19, at Perpetual Succour Hospital in Cebu City where he spent his last 23 days after months of being in and out of the hospital. He was 70.

He was on indefinite leave starting in October and his term as mayor would have ended in 2022.

According to his son, Jaypee, Labella died of “septic shock secondary to pneumonia.”

Rama promised to accord Labella “the honors he deserved as a mayor and a public servant.”

Before becoming mayor, Labella was the city's vice mayor from 2013 to 2019 and was a member of the City Council from 1998 to 2001, and again, from 2004 to 2013.

Prior to that, Labella, a lawyer, also served as director of the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas from 1994 to 1998. — Iris Hazel M. Mascardo, FPL (FREEMAN)