One of Dumaguete’s beloved social and political icons has passed away. Ma. Luisa de Castro Locsin passed on last April 1st at the age of 94.
“Inday,” as she was known, was born in Dumaguete in Sept. 1, 1922 to Luis F. de Castro and Simeona Montenegro. The eldest of five siblings, she was educated in Catholic schools in Bacolod and Iloilo during a peripatetic childhood.
During the Second World War years, she met and married Vicente Teves Locsin Jr., on April 27, 1943. They started a family and had seven children which they raised in the family farm in Maslog, Sibulan.
Her deep love for her family enabled her to cope with the many challenges life threw her way. Well trained by her mother to perform any household task, she also exhibited the same gusto while doing manual labor in their family farm.
Little did she know that all these activities were preparing her for a life of public service. Her first foray into politics was when she ran and won as municipal councilor and later on as vice mayor of Sibulan.
In the 1970s, their family transferred to Dumaguete, where she served as Dumaguete City councilor for four terms, finally retiring in 1985.
She was a public servant for 35 years.
While a Dumaguete councilor, Inday was the overseer of the City’s social services programs, where she pressed for the creation of what is now the Philippine Mental Health Association Rehabilitation Center at barangay Talay. She also pushed for the creation of a Home for the Aged.
After she returned to private life, she built a chapel of the Sto Nino in Maslog Sibulan. She also donated land for the construction of the Jose Mari Locsin Memorial High School in Salngan, Zamboanguita, named after her son.She always had a part during the school’s commencement exercises as she would give awards to the class valedictorian, class honors, and all the graduates.When she passed away, she was starting to prepare for the commencement program of Class 2017.
She is survived by her children Levi and wife Grace, Ramon and wife Anabelle, Rozzano, and Christophia and husband Leo Bollos.
Inday was blessed with many grandchildren and great grandchildren.
She was preceded in life by her husband Vicente and her children Maria Corazon, Jose Maria, and Lucille Elizabeth.
A strong-willed woman, Inday epitomized a kind, loving, and gentle matriarch. Her children say she always sought for family reconciliation. She was unselfish.
She will be greatly missed.
In the words of Alfred Lord Tennyson in his poem Ulysses:
Though much is taken, much abides; And though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven;
That which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
