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BACOLOD City – Officials, colleagues, family, friends, and supporters paid their last respects to former mayor Oscar “Oca” Verdeflor during his interment Saturday, Dec. 3 at the Rose Lawns Memorial Park in Barangay Bata.
Verdeflor’s wake was also held at the Bacolod City Government Center lobby from Dec. 2 to 3.
Among the local officials who went to the funeral were Mayor Evelio Leonardia; councilors Ricardo Tan, Elmer Sy and Sonya Verdeflor; and former councilors Alex Paglumotan, Archie Baribar and Catalino Alisbo.
“We are here to honor a man who had served the city,” Leonardia said at the necrological service. “Words may not be enough to express the grief, particularly what the family is experiencing and the rest of the city. But if I have to give these words of comfort, I would say Mayor Oca was a man of destiny.”
Leonarida said Verdeflor was an example of what his own late brother Cesar Leonardia told him, “Kon swerte sang tawo, swerte niya gid na. Kon iya, iya ina,” referring to Verdeflor’s election as mayor in 1998.
“I say that he is a man of destiny because he started with humble beginnings, and ventured beyond the shores of Bacolod and [went] to the United States and stayed there for so long,” said the mayor. “It is always a struggle, as you know, when you are in a foreign land, and when he came back, he fulfilled his dreams.”
He also lauded Verdeflor’s widow, Barbara, for “how she stood with him all these years.”
Verdeflor, who turned 80 on April 3, died of septic shock on Nov. 21 at the Dr. Pablo O. Torre Memorial Hospital (also known as Riverside Hospital). He was mayor for one term, from 1998 to 2001. (Bacolod City PIO/PN)
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