FINAL RESTING PLACE. Monsignor Roberto Alesna blesses the casket of the late Mayor Edgardo Labella as he is laid to his final resting place in Golden Haven Memorial Park in Talamban, Cebu City on Friday (Nov. 26, 2021). Cebu City residents paid their last respects to Labella who died due to "septic shock secondary to pneumonia" on November 19. (Screengrab from Cebu City Hall PIO video)
CEBU CITY – Mayor Edgardo Labella was laid to his final resting place on Friday, with at least a thousand city residents lining up the streets to pay their last respects to the revered local chief executive.
Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma led the concelebrated requiem mass at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral at noon before his casket was laid atop a black hearse for a funeral procession to the city center going to the Golden Haven Memorial Park.
“In asking God our loving Father to grant upon our dear father of the city the peace to rest, the fullness of life he desires. When we reflect on 2021, we often associate it with a year of 500 Years of Christianity, and we have had activities not only this year but even in preparation for 2021, and yet if you look at this year and the past months, we begin to be aware of the many great servant leaders, cream of the crop of politicians whom God in his mystery has called them to the great beyond,” Palma said in his homily.
Palma described Labella as a “well-loved” servant leader of the city, noting the placards expressing how the city residents considered him as their father.
The prelate recalled Labella’s sterling achievements in serving the city beginning in 1998 when he was elected as a member of the City Council up to 2001 after he resigned his post in the Office of the Ombudsman Visayas. He then had another stint as councilor from 2004 to 2013, vice mayor from 2013 to 2019, and mayor from 2019 to the present.
Labella’s family members and friends, along with his close associates and supporters, followed the convoy of buses, coasters, and cars passing by major thoroughfares.
Mayor Mike Rama, Labella's successor, led other city officials in the necrological service in front of the Cebu City Hall’s old building before the casket was moved to the cathedral for the funeral mass.
Monsignor Roberto Alesna offered prayers and blessings to the casket of the late mayor before he was laid to rest. (PNA)
