Jul 2nd, 2009. Filed under Headline, Philippine News.
Filipinos worldwide mourn Jackson
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MANILA - Millions of Filipinos in the Philippines, the United States and around the world mourned the death of pop music icon Michael Jackson who died of cardiac arrest in Los Angeles June 25.
Malacanang led Philippine government officials in paying tribute to superstar who touched the lives of tens of millions of people around the world.
Prisoners in the Cebu city jail who created a worldwide sensation when they performed Jackson’s “Thriller” two years ago performed it again as tribute to their idol.
“We join the world in mourning the death of a music icon,” President Gloria Arroyo’s cabinet secretary Silvestre Bello said in a statement issued by the presidential palace.
He said Jackson, 50, “revolutionized music and touched the lives of so many people, and while he was not perfect, he definitely contributed immensely to the music industry,” Bello added.
House Speaker Prospero Nograles said Jackson’s legions of fans around the world will miss the pop icon and his music. Senators Mar Roxas, Chiz Escudero and others also recalled the one and only performance made by Jackson in Manila in December 1996.
Rep. Satur Ocampo and other socialistic members of Congress recalled the many songs that Jackson had composed and sang that were similar to their clamor for a just society.
Members of the local film and music industry also expressed shock over the untimely death of the pop star. Charise Pepengco, the young Filipino singer who is making waves around the world, was reportedly set to perform in one of the shows Jackson had planned for the months ahead.
In the US, Hong Kong, and the Middle East, Filipino organizations also held memorial services for their idol.
In his performance in the Philippines 13 years ago, Jackson drew an estimated 50,000 people in his one and only concert in Manila in December 1996, when he had to perform on reclaimed land on Manila Bay after the city mayor refused to give a permit on grounds of allegations of child abuse against the star.
Joey Marquez, a former local film star who was at the time the top executive of the southern Manila district that eventually hosted the concert, told local television he now regretted having refused Jackson’s offer to give his host his famous sequined hat.
