Friends of Jaguar pay respects at mausoleum

Amid surge of visitors, grave of slain drug lord Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz is peaceful . (CDN PHOTO/ LITO TECSON)

A MAUSOLEUM painted sky blue and fronted by a gold-painted steel gate stands out among the chalk-white and ashen gray tombs that greet visitors at the entrance of the Calamba Cemetery in V. Rama, Cebu City.

Yet unlike those tombs that were crowded with families paying their respects to their departed loved ones, the mausoleum only had two visitors — a couple who were friends with its lone occupant, the slain drug lord Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz.

One of these visitors who identified himself to Cebu Daily News only as “Lando” stopped at the mausoleum, peered closely at the mausoleum as if to verify whether it was indeed Diaz’s burial site and lit two white candles at the gate.

After waving his fingers swiftly back and forth above the flames of the candles, Lando made the sign of the cross and whispered a prayer for Diaz.

“He was a very close family friend, and we had such wonderful memories as kids,” Lando said.

He said he and Diaz lived right across each other in Barangay Duljo-Fatima, Cebu City, and Diaz was a decade younger than him.

Lando also recalled how Jaguar loved playing basketball and how he would coach him during pickup games.

Though the world sees Diaz as a menace to society, Lando said he would always remember him as a good friend. Diaz died reportedly in an encounter with police from Cebu and Las Piñas City last June 17.