Labor leader and former senator Ernesto “Boy” Herrera was laid to rest past noon yesterday at the Cebu Memorial Park (Cempark) in Cebu City.
Some 300 people, mostly friends, colleagues in the labor sector including former executive secretary and former labor secretary Ruben Torres, paid their last respects and attended his funeral.
A requiem Mass was held at the St. Therese of the Child Jesus Parish in Lahug.
Herrera died last October 29 in a hospital in Manila at the age of 73 due to cardiac arrest. His body was flown to Cebu last November 4 and his wake was held at the Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes in Nivel Hills, Cebu City.
After the requiem Mass at 9 a.m., his friends, including Torres and former Senator Joey Lina, delivered eulogies.
Bohol Governor Edgar Chatto and some mayors in Bohol also paid their final respects at the funeral parlor before his burial.
Last Monday evening, some local and national officials including Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, former Cebu 1st district Rep. Eduardo Gullas and grandson Rep. Gerald Anthony Gullas; Danao
City Mayor Ramon “Nito” Durano III, Susan “Toots” Ople, former Senator Juan Miguel Zubirri, actor Edu Manzano and Bohol congressman Erico Aristotle Aumentado and classmates paid tribute to the late senator.
Some also delivered eulogies while others sang the favorite songs of the late senator.
Despite his death, Herrera’s legacy will remain, said his son Ernest.
“As they say, he was a titan in labor sector and that’s his biggest legacy,” Ernest said.
Ernest, who is the former mayor of Calape, Bohol, said he will continue the legacy of his father who asked in his last wish that he follow his footsteps in the labor sector.
Around two months before his death, Ernest said his father told him to be active in the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP).
In fact, he said, he is the number 2 nominee of the TUCP partylist group Herrera faction in the coming election. TUCP was divided into two factions — the group of the former senator and that of Atty. Democrito Mendoza’s.
Herrera was the secretary general and later president of TUCP.
“My father wants me to be active in TUCP. Of course, it’s so hard to fill in his shoes but I’m learning. It would be a very big responsibility and I’m trying my best to deal with all issues slowly,” Ernest said.
Being a labor leader, Ernest said his father was instrumental in the passage of some important laws like the maternity leave benefits and creation of the Technical Education and Skills Development (TESDA).
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