Deedee
“Hello, Dear.”
That was how former Press Undersecretary Lourdes “Deedee” Munson Siytangco would greet me in her chirpy voice each time we would see each other, or talk over the phone.
Her voice was like a sunflower unfurling its petals in greeting.
But, as the song goes, the trouble with hello is “goodbye.”
This goodbye is one of the hardest I’ve had to make, since Deedee and I were almost like family. I met her in 1988 at Malacañang when she was covering President Aquino for the Manila Bulletin, while I was an editor at the Malacañang Press Office. It’s a good thing we got along really well because in a few months, she would become my boss there. And through all these years, I felt like she had always looked out for me like an aunt would (she was actually the Maryknoll classmate of my late aunt Marion Calderon Reyes).
After Deedee, whom I called “Usec,” passed on, her only daughter Sandee Masigan requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Contemplative Brothers of Mary Mother of the Poor. But she added that if “insistent,” please send sunflowers. Thus, her wake was a sunflower garden. Sandee recalled that when she was still living in Ayala Heights, her parents Sonny and Deedee, at the latter’s insistence, would make a detour to the UP Diliman campus to see the sunflowers when they were in season.
Deedee was like a sunflower, a giver of cheer. She was radiant, like the sun, so people naturally gravitated towards her. She made those close to her feel special. Her sunbeam kept us all together in its embrace — her family (children Sandee and Andrew, Junie and Cora, David, AJ and Ayet and their children Amanda, Monchu, Miggi and Disney,) her clan, her Maryknoll classmates, her colleagues at the Manila Bulletin, her Cory Cabinet colleagues, the Malacañang Press Corps, and her various charity circles. I became even closer to her because she brought me into her Bulong Pulungan media forum, which convened every Tuesday at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza till before the pandemic. She co-founded the group in 1986.
Deedee was there for you in good times and bad. A colleague described her as “a friend in need and in deed.” Till before her own surgery for a urinary bladder condition, Deedee was fundraising for a sick colleague. Deedee wouldn’t only pass you a message about the colleague in need (which she verified first with the colleague’s spouse), she would actually follow up on her request. Talagang gusto niyang makatulong (She really wanted to help), beyond lip service. Walang iwanan(No one should be left behind).
Another Bulong Pulungan member Cynthia Santiago wrote, “We met at Bulong Pulungan, Tuesday Media Forum when I was editor-in- chief of Mod Magazine. When I retired, I told (Deedee) since I’m no longer in media, I guess I have to leave Bulong, too. But (she) told me, ‘You are a core member. You stay.’ To me, that manifested (her) kindness, loyalty — qualities that make Deedee an icon in media.”
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Deedee is best known as the late former President Cory Aquino’s spokesperson. Deedee, like the rest of us in the Press Office, stood our ground at the Kalayaan Hall even while rebel soldiers were strafing the building in 1989. Her loyalty to Cory, even after the latter stepped down from the presidency, was unfathomable.
On one of Deedee’s birthdays, Cory gave Deedee her (citizen Cory’s) very first check as a pensionada. Deedee had the check framed.
“Mrs. Sec was friends with everyone,” said Cory’s eldest child Ballsy Aquino-Cruz. “She was an understanding and a generous human being. And she was appreciative of even the smallest things. She was always very proud of Tito Sonny and her children.”
Cory’s fourth child Viel Aquino-Dee, for her part, recalled, “Tita Deedee had been super supportive of our whole family from my mom to Noy (President Benigno Aquino III) and even to my son Kiko recently when he was involved in wreath-laying plans in NAIA for Dad’s 40th. Ballsy and I were touched when Bishop Bacani said in his homily last Tuesday, another thing that he and Deedee had in common was their love for Cory.”
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In a Mass for Deedee, Father Jerry Orbos SVD made sure he brought along his missionary priests, because Deedee was a staunch fundraiser for “Mission Angels,” a group composed of Deedee, Maritess Lopez, Maritess Pineda and more, which supported the studies of several seminarians aspiring to be missionaries.
When Fr. Jerry asked Deedee’s children what trait of their mother they would like to “franchise,” Sandee said it was her generosity and welcoming heart, so much so that their home was open to anyone who craved a good meal or needed a shoulder to cry on.
“Mom would always say, ‘There is always room for more in our table’,” Sandy recalled. Once, her brother Junie said he was bringing home 14 members of the volleyball team for dinner after practice — an hour or two before their arrival. Deedee was ready for them.
AJ said that aside from being a loving mother and grandmother, his mother “interviewed and supped with presidents and took selfies with prime ministers.”
I was in Prague, coincidentally, with Deedee’s editor Arnel Patawaran, in the days following her surgery and her unexpected demise. Through her son AJ, Deedee was still able to submit a column, which she had advanced and left instructions to email to Arnel.
Thus, till her last breath, Deedee wasn’t only loving her family and helping colleagues. She was writing.
Goodbye, Deedee. And as we would often end our phone calls, “Love you.”
You may e-mail me at [email protected]. Follow me on Instagram @joanneraeramirez.
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