MANILA, Philippines – When he was a younger boy, Howard Dee made a discount with God.
His mother had late-stage cervical most cancers, and the boy, wanting his mother to reside, went to church to wish. “Jesus, in case you deal with my mother and heal her, I promise, I pledge, my entire life, I’ll deal with your mother.”
Dee’s daughter, Angie Dee, laughed as she recalled this story that’s typically repeated of their household. “He stated it was a silly request as a result of, in fact, who can deal with the Blessed Mom? Not him. However he truly made good on this promise.”
His mom was ultimately cured of most cancers, and Dee — till he died on the age of 93 — at all times selected to imagine.
His final phrases earlier than succumbing to a coronary heart illness, as recounted by his grandson Joseph Dee Anthony, was certainly his life story from the start: “Hold the religion, maintain the religion, maintain the religion.”
Dee, former Philippine ambassador to the Holy See, died of aortic intramural hematoma on Wednesday, August 21. He had been rushed to the hospital Tuesday night, August 20, as a result of problem respiratory after receiving an award and delivering a speech on the 2024 Ramon V. del Rosario (RVR) Nation Constructing and Siklab Awards Night time in Makati Metropolis.
He was buried at Heritage Memorial Park in Taguig Metropolis on Sunday, August 25. His wake was open to the general public from Thursday to Saturday, August 22 to 24, at Santuario de San Antonio in Makati Metropolis.
The bodily set-up throughout his wake was telling.
To the left of the coffin have been two portraits, one displaying his favourite quote: “Hold the religion, it’s every thing.”
To the precise was a three-foot statue of Our Woman of Fatima, mounted on a pedestal, the lady to whom he promised a complete life of affection and care. A joke lately heard by his grandson, Kiko Aquino Dee, was that his grandmother Betty “can be unhappy, as a result of the primary lady in his life was Mama Mary.”
“Religion undergirded every thing that he did. It’s the inspiration of all his good works. It’s the inspiration of working onerous even in enterprise, that you just at all times give your perfect to make use of the items that God gave you. It’s a must to render an accounting,” stated his 65-year-old daughter Angie in an interview with Rappler.
Within the footsteps of Saint Francis
The lifetime of Dee mirrored the lifetime of his favourite saint, Francis of Assisi.
Francis of Assisi was a Twelfth-century Italian friar who got here from a rich household, then later renounced his riches to reside a lifetime of poverty. Now one of the crucial in style saints within the Catholic Church, he was recognized for his love for God’s creation, together with “Brother Solar” and “Sister Moon,” and was additionally remembered for his peaceable interactions with Muslims.
Like Saint Francis, Dee was a person of wealth.
Dee was the primary president of the Philippines’ main pharmaceutical firm, Unilab, following its founder Jose Y. Campos. Unilab, in a press release, stated he “led the corporate by way of an period of exceptional development from 1964 to 1970.” He additionally authored the United Creed, a set of ideas “upholding the the Aristocracy of our function and an unwavering dedication to integrity.”
Regardless of his success as a businessman, nevertheless, Dee at all times had the poor and uncared for in thoughts.
In 1975, together with Jesuit priest Father Francisco Araneta, Dee based the Assisi Growth Basis (ADF) to assist struggle poverty, defend indigenous peoples, and promote social justice and peace. The nonprofit group, named after Dee’s favourite saint, has carried out over 4,100 tasks and affected the lives of greater than 10.5 million Filipinos.
ADF later incubated ASA Philippines, the place Dee was chairman emeritus. Dee stated within the RVR occasion that ASA is now “the most important microfinance establishment in Southeast Asia,” due to its 12,000 staff.
He concerned himself, too, in peace-building efforts with communist and Muslim rebels — once more within the mould of Saint Francis, whose pleasant assembly with Sultan al-Malik al-Kāmil in 1219 is taken into account a mannequin of interreligious dialogue to at the present time.
In accordance with his profile on the Ramon Magsaysay Awards Basis web site, he convened the Nationwide Peace Convention from 1990 to 1992, served within the Social Reform Council from 1993 to 1995, engaged in peace talks with communist rebels from 1993 to 1994, and joined the Bangsamoro Fundamental Legislation Peace Council in 2015.
He was additionally a founding father of the Philippine Enterprise for Social Progress, a number one company social duty group, and the well-known Hapag-asa feeding program of the Archdiocese of Manila.
From 1997 to 2015, Dee was president and vice-chairperson of the Household Rosary Campaign Basis Included, whose mission is to unfold devotion to the rosary and the Virgin Mary.
‘He used cash for the nice’
Wealth, for Dee, was not a hindrance to larger religion.
In accordance with Angie, her father believed that success in enterprise is “a impartial factor.”
“Cash is a impartial factor,” she stated. “It’s the love of cash that’s evil. And he by no means let that get to him. He used cash for the nice.”
“We aren’t the homeowners of something. We’re merely the stewards of our religious items, our monetary items,” Angie recalled her father telling their household. “You’re the palms and ft and eyes of God, and you must use it the best way God needs.”
Dee’s grandson, Joseph, remembered his grandfather’s recommendation after he received his first job at a monetary agency. At the moment, Joseph felt he was “on a mission to make the large bucks” and to “be a profitable businessman similar to Lolo.”
“However Lolo’s recommendation was easy: ‘It’s good to start out studying a livelihood at a younger age, however it is best to stability it with studying ethical values that can see you thru your life as you grow old,’” Joseph stated in a eulogy. He added that, for Dee, “it ought to by no means be nearly cash, working a giant job, or striving for titles.”
Joseph stated he additionally spoke with Dee on the cellphone lately a couple of profession resolution. “After asking his recommendation, Lolo responded with three phrases: ‘Hold the religion.’ Once I received off the cellphone, I checked out my girlfriend and stated, what kind of recommendation was that?!”
It was the identical recommendation he gave “in each electronic mail correspondence” over the past decade, Joseph stated. “With out failure, it was talked about in each single electronic mail to ‘maintain the religion.’”
“What I’m attempting to say is Lolo’s final recommendation was to maintain the religion — that it doesn’t matter what hardship, life resolution, financial problem, or state of affairs you’re in, Lolo’s recommendation can be to maintain the religion,” Joseph stated.
Like Lola Cory and Lolo Ninoy
When requested about an important factor Filipinos can study from Dee, his grandson Kiko stated one lesson is that “all his life, he cared about poverty.”
His last speech on the RVR awards evening, the truth is, tackled the acute poverty confronted by many Filipino households.
Dee stated in his speech on the eve of his demise: “My pals, as a lot as this recognition tonight fills me with pleasure, being in my twilight years, I see this as a chance as nicely for self-reflection. I ask myself, with all of the blessings and items that I’ve been given, have I finished sufficient? What extra can I do?”
“Alone, not a lot,” he stated. “However along with all of the awardees of the Ramon V. del Rosario Award for Nation Constructing, we will collaborate to undertake the United Nations purpose of eradicating excessive poverty for all Filipinos by the 12 months 2030, 5 years from now.”
It was a imaginative and prescient rooted in his fixed chorus.
Kiko was certain his Lolo would inform Filipinos to “maintain the religion.”
“His faith, his religion in God, his devotion to Mama Mary was so core to his being,” Kiko stated in an interview with Rappler throughout the wake.
Kiko in contrast Dee to his maternal grandmother, the late former president Corazon “Cory” Cojuangco Aquino.
It was beneath Aquino that Dee served as Philippine ambassador to the Holy See from 1986 to 1990. He resigned after Aquino’s daughter, Viel, married the ambassador’s son Richard Joseph Dee. Viel advised Rappler that Dee give up the submit as a result of “he didn’t suppose it could be acceptable that he can be the balae (guardian of a child-in-law) of the President.”
Kiko stated that like his Lola Cory, who was additionally a Marian devotee, his Lolo Howard needed individuals to resume or uncover a relationship with God.
Kiko additionally remembered his different lolo, the late senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., who was assassinated on Manila’s airport tarmac on August 21, 1983. His Lolo Howard likewise died on August 21, the forty first anniversary of Ninoy’s martyrdom.
Within the realm of religion the place, as they are saying, “there are not any accidents, solely grace,” Dee’s precise final phrases on the RVR occasion will be learn in some ways.
Dee stated in his August 20 speech, shortly earlier than he was rushed to the hospital: “In closing, I want to dedicate my award tonight to my former balae, Ninoy Aquino, who’s celebrating his feast day tomorrow, August twenty first. Thanks, and good evening.”
Through the wake, as we spoke of coincidences, Kiko recounted how the RVR occasion was initially scheduled for July 25, however was postponed to August 20 as a result of Storm Carina (Gaemi).
This last line of Dee’s speech, the grandson added, “was a last-minute insert” by the late ambassador. “I don’t know when Lolo determined to place it in, however he put it in. And it ended up being the very last thing he stated in public.”
In our interview on Friday, August 23, Kiko stated he has not “processed” how each his Lolo Howard and Lolo Ninoy died on August 21 — past the truth that “okay, it’ll be simple to recollect now.”
“However I feel it’s that they spent their final moments on Earth, they spent the final day of their life, doing one thing they actually imagine in. And the way many individuals get to say that?” – Rappler.com
