Friends, colleagues pay last respects to Boncodin

(Updated 5:04 p.m.) Friends and colleagues started paying their last respects to former Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin late Monday night even before her remains were brought to a parish in Quezon City shortly after midnight. GMA News' Oscar Oida said in his report over Unang Hirit Tuesday that among those who came to pay their last respects to Boncodin, aside from her family, were her colleagues in the Hyatt 10, a group of Cabinet officials who quit their posts in 2005 during the height of the "Hello, Garci" scandal then rocking the Arroyo government. [See: Hyatt 10 resignation] "Isang tapat na lingkod-bayan na naninindigan sa katotohanan. Yan ang dapat maalala natin, na namumuhay sa simpleng pamumuhay (She was a dedicated public servant who stood by the truth. That is what we should remember, and that she lived a simple life)," said former Social Welfare Secretary Corazon "Dinky" Soliman. Other former Cabinet officials who went to Boncodin's wake were former Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, former Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles, former Trade Secretary Juan Santos, former Customs Commissioner Alberto Lina, and former Education Secretary Florencio "Butch" Abad.
Abad's colleagues in the Liberal Party, former Senate President Franklin Drilon and LP standard-bearer Senator Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, also visited Boncodin's wake. "She was a dedicated public servant," Drilon said. "She had her way of saying no without displeasing people. She was very frank when she sees that there are certain items where she has to stand her ground." Aquino said Boncodin was his choice to head the Department of Budget and Management if he wins in the May elections. “Marami pa sana siyang itutulong napakabata pa kung tutuusin. Sa totoo lang po kung tayo papalarin iniisip ko siya ibalik sa DBM (She could have helped government a lot. She is still young. I was thinking of making her Budget Secretary should I win the presidential elections)," Aquino told reporters in Naga City. Palace mourns Boncodin's death The remains of Boncodin, who died due to cardiac arrest at age 55 Monday afternoon, were brought to the Santa Maria dela Strada Parish at Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City shortly after Monday midnight. [See: Former Budget chief Boncodin dies] Radio dzBB's Roland Bola said the parish's security allowed mourners to enter the chapel before dawn Tuesday. In Malacañang, deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is scheduling a visit to pay her last respects to Boncodin. "Sometime within this week, di ko alam ang schedule niya (Mrs. Arroyo will pay her last respects to Boncodin this week. I am not privy to her schedule)," Olivar said in an interview on dwIZ radio. He hailed Boncodin as a "very important" official who played a key role in the Arroyo government's fiscal reforms in its first few years. "Si Sec. Boncodin ay kilalang expert sa budget and finance. Ikinalungkot ng Palasyo at inaabot ang condolence sa kanyang pamilya (Boncodin was an expert on finance and budget. The Palace mourns her passing and extends its condolences to her family)," he said. Credentials Prior to her appointment as DBM chief in 2001, Boncodin had spent many years with the department. From senior fiscal planning specialist in 1978, she quickly rose to become division chief at age 27, then Director of the then Office of Budget and Management, and then officer-in-charge of the Government Corporations Budget Bureau of the reorganized DBM. In 1989, she was appointed as assistant secretary and eventually in 1991 as Undersecretary of DBM. On the side, she was a professorial lecturer at the University of the Philippines and the Lyceum of the Philippines. A native of Iriga City, Boncodin was a topnotch student since her elementary days as valedictorian of Iriga Central Pilot School and valedictorian of St. Anthony College, also in Iriga City. She was a government scholar at the UP where she completed her BS in Business Administration & Accountancy in 1975. She placed 15th in the CPA Board Examinations that same year. In 1986, she finished her Masters in Public Administration at Harvard University in Cambridge where she was an Edward S. Mason Fellow. Among the awards and citations she received in the DBM were Most Outstanding Technical Employee in 1978, and Most Outstanding Division Chief in 1981. She was also the Outstanding Alumna of the UP College of Business Administration in 1992, and an Outstanding Women in Nation's Service Awardee in 1995. She was also the 1996 Dwight Eisenhower Fellow for the Philippines. — with Johanna Camille Sisante/RSJ, GMANews.TV