P’sinan witness SAF’s hero’s burial

Spectators and police officers from Manila and 
Pangasinan were in solemnity during the
 necrological service of San Quintin's, Pangasinan 
fallen hero PO2 Christopher Hernaez at
the town's plaza.

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

SAN QUINTIN, Pangasinan – People in and out of this town were treated with a huge colorful military honor after the mayor here initiated a hero’s funeral to a police commando who died fighting Muslim rebels that attacked recently Zamboanga City.

Hernaez's older brother eulogized as two commandos
 guard the casket of the slain Special Action
 Force member.

Mayor Clark Cecil P. Tiu said that the local government unit of this eastern Pangasinan town organized the hero’s burial of Police Officer-2 Christopher Hernaez, a member of Special Action Force (SAF), because of his exceptional sacrificed fighting for the safety, peace, tranquility, and way of life of the Filipinos. “Ni initiate namin ito siyempre we treat our kababayan as hero because of what happened to him. Siyempre lumaban iyan sa giyera kaya hindi siya makakalimutan,” Tiu stressed.

Mayor Clark Cecil Tiu and Pangasinan Police
Provincial Director Marlou Chan (3rd and
4th from right respectively) queue to
offer flowers to their fallen town mate.

Pangasinan Provincial Director Marlou Chan said that aside from the military honor attended not only by hundreds of police personnel in the province and a team of olive green garbed SAF from Manila, the Tiu administration extended financial assistance to the family of Hernaez.
The awarding of the assistance and the resolution acknowledging the heroic deeds of Hernaez were handed by the mayor, Vice Mayor Napoleon N. Co, and the members of the Sangguniang Bayan (town council) to the bereaved family of the town’s hero during the necrological service held here last September 18.
 The verdant town, according to Tiu, is one of the biggest producers of graduates from the Philippine Military Academy and the Philippine National Police Academy in Pangasinan.

TV photo grabbed from the burial. Two
 national TV networks cover the funeral.

“We got a lot of military and police officials here. I think we have six active and retired generals who hailed from this town,” the mayor said.
Senior Superintendent Chan,  a proud son of this town and one of the proponents of the colorful burial, is a member of PMA class of 1985.
Hernaez is from Barangay Bantog here. He was born in July 22, 1981 and died fighting the Moro National Liberation Front in Zamboanga City in September 11 this year.

The slain son of San Quintin who fought for freedom
and democracy.

"May the Force be with you, commando" Colonel Chan
seems to utter as he and two SAF members extend their
snappiest salute to a hero.

Gun Salute for a fallen comrade-in-arms