FORMER colleagues in the House of Representatives yesterday paid tribute to the late former deputy speaker Ma. Amelita Calimbas-Villarosa during necrological service at the Batasang Pambansa Complex in Quezon City.
Led by Speaker Lord Allan Velasco, past and current members of the chamber recited the achievements of the departed lawmaker who served in the 11th, 13th, 14th and 15th Congresses as representative of the lone district Occidental Mindoro and became the chamber’s first female deputy speaker.
Villarosa died of aneurysm last May 30, on what was supposed to be her 78th birthday, while undergoing treatment in a hospital in Metro Manila.
Velasco said Villarosa will be forever remembered for her advocacies on women’s rights and issues, rural electrification, decent housing, environmental protection, animal welfare, hospital emergency care, and public health emergency.
He credited the deceased for making the Apo Reef Natural Park a reality and putting Apo Reef, the world’s second-largest contiguous coral reef system and the largest in the country, on the map as one of the world’s top diving destinations.
Former president and speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said that as a House leader, Villarosa steered controversial legislation through hard work and her non-confrontational style including the Expanded Value-Added Tax and the Pantawid ng Pamilyang Pilipino.
She disclosed that the former Occidental Mindoro legislator had survived cancer and a recent bout with pneumonia but succumbed to a previously undetected aneurysm.
Even on the day before her passing, Villarosa was reportedly working to reorganize party mates In Lakas-National Union of Christian Democrats in the Mimaropa Region.
