Death of Muslim lady educator mourned

Dr. Hadja Sittie Nurlayla Emily M. Marohombsar

 

By ALI G. MACABALANG
(NOTE: The subject of the story is my cousin, an icon of true public service. I wrote this piece in tribute to her in the name of good governance and peace-building.)

COTABATO CITY – Thousands of people from various walks of life in the country and elsewhere are mourning the death of a Mindanao-based Muslim lady educator they adored as an “icon” of peace building, good governance and quality education for the Bangsamoro.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front leadership led the mourners, posting in its official website – luwaran.com – a message of condolence and a tribute to Dr. Hadja Sittie Nurlayla Emily M. Marohombsar, the first woman state peace panelist it had dealt with during the stormy days of the MILF-government peace talks.

“I know her very well (as) a very amiable personality and so easy to deal with… We would miss another good person and may Allah bless her soul,” MILF chief peace panelist Mohagher Iqbal said in the online message, referring to Dr. Marohombsar.

Dr. Marohombsar, 77, succumbed to heart failure last Friday afternoon at the Capitol University Medical Center in Cagayan de Oro City, according to Robert Maulana Marohombsar-Alonto, her nephew and an MILF peace panelist who stayed beside his aunt up to the last breath.

She was laid to rest the following day under Islamic rites in Ganassi, Lanao del Sur, her rugged hometown where she was born on Sept. 7, 1935 to the late Luis Marohombsar, the first Muslim graduate of the Philippine Military Academy and military governor of then one Lanao province.

Before the burial, relatives brought her remains first to the Mindanao State University (MSU) main campus in Marawi City where she had served as first lady Muslim president (1993-1998) and earned the moniker as the academicians’ “human dynamo.”

Officials of the Philippine Women’s University also condoled with family of Marohombsar, who was their Summa Cum Laude graduate of a baccalaureate education degree in 1950s. Her Alma Mater conferred her doctorate degree, honoris causa, in 1978.

She pursued her post-graduate studies at the Ateneo de Manila, the University of Hawaii and Harvard University in the US as an East-West Center scholar.

Emily, as intimates call her, was a source of pride among Muslim Filipinos, especially during her college study in PWU when school officials had painstakingly persuaded her to vie for the Miss Manila pageant because of her beauty and brain. But her family opposed the proposal owing to the conservative Muslim cultural orientations, it was learned.

Fellow Muslim educator Dr. Abdullah Madale wrote a book about Marohombsar, describing her as a “competent and colorful educator.”

He said Emily started her academic career at the Jamiatul Philippine Al-Islamia in Marawi City as professor after her marriage to Abdul Marohombsar, a renowned trial lawyer, undefeated vice governor of Lanao del Sur and a former commissioner of the Commission on Elections. Their marriage was blessed with five children – Abdul Jr., Shainulla, Samerah, Alamina and Ahmad.

Dr. Marohombsar was a recipient of many national and international awards including a 1977 Ten Outstanding Women of the New Society, a Sultan Kudarat award for Most Outstanding Educator (1988), and a “Gintong Ina” award.

Upon the establishment of the MSU main campus in Marawi City in 1961, Dr. Marohombsar joined the pinoneering faculty workforce, from which she rose to the positions as dean, vice presidents for academic affairs and external affairs, and later as university president.

Beverly Faith Talpis Tanggol, wife of former Ambassador Sukarno Tanggol and a former student in MSU, described Marohombsar as the “icon of integrity, beauty and brain.”

Marohombsar’s clan is known for having produced dozens of public servants who had not built expensive houses after years or decades of service in government.

The MILF website said: “Before the presidential elections of 2004, Dr. Marohombsar, together with another female member of the panel, resigned from the GPH Peace Panel after reportedly being disillusioned with the ‘insincere’ way the then (Arroyo administration) was handling the negotiations with the MILF.” (Ali G. Macabalang)