‘A shining, lasting light to brighten insurance world’

Former Insurance Commissioner Evangeline Crisostomo-Escobillo

(Insurance Commissioner Emmanuel F. Dooc delivered this eulogy on May 8 for former Commissioner Evangeline Crisostomo-Escobillo, who passed away on May 4.)

With all the dead around us in this hallowed place, it is strange that we are gathered here to celebrate life—the life of our sister, friend and colleague, Commissioner Evangeline Crisostomo-Escobillo.

In many but different ways, at various times and points in our lives, Vangie, as a student, a friend, a mother, a relative, a practicing actuary, a bank and insurance executive and an Insurance Commissioner, had touched our lives.

We shared her joys, suffered her pains, celebrated her triumphs and bore her defeats. And each of us who has the privilege to know her also died a little when we learned of her passing four days ago.

May 3 was a day of national mourning for all Filipinos when Manny Pacquiao lost to Mayweather. But to all of us assembled here tonight, May 4 was a day of inconsolable grief and immeasurable despair when we lost Vangie.

It was reported that she was the one driving when they met their tragic accident. Yes, that’s Vangie no doubt. For whatever she did, she was always in control and in command.

She lived a fast and furious life, maybe knowing that her life would be brief—trying to achieve so much in so short a lifetime.

Vladimir Nabokov, the Russian author who wrote the famous novel “Lolita,” once wrote: “Our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.” That may be so, but Vangie’s life is a shining, lasting light that will illumine the insurance world.

I cannot forget her last day in her office at the IC on Aug. 10, 2007. She called me at my office in Philamlife around 10:30 a.m. In less than 15 minutes, I was seated in front of her across her desk which is now my official desk.

Without any preliminaries, fully knowing that her term of office is expiring, Vangie asked me: Is there anything she can further do on her last day in office?

I thought hard, and since one raging issue at that time was agent’s misconduct, I suggested that she issue a circular dealing with the Market Conduct of insurance agents.

She asked me if I could draft it and I answered I could if she would give me at least 2 hours. It was 11 a.m. and she asked me to work on it at the receiving table outside her office and ordered lawyer Denis Cabucos to join me later to format my draft in IC Circular Form.

She left to attend a meeting at the DOF after ordering lunch for me. A couple of hours later, she came back and, after reading the draft, signed Circular Letter No. 16-2007 dated Aug. 10, 2007, her last day in office.

It was her last official act in office as insurance commissioner. Up to the very end, the interest and protection of policy owners against abusive and erring insurance agents was foremost in her mind.

Vangie loved life and lived it with gusto, daring and passion.

Idleness was not part of her DNA. She loved action and had an unmatched zest for life. She was bold with her commitment, dauntless with her conviction, and honest with her feelings.

She got what it takes to regulate a troubled industry. She had led a full and rich life. She had the integrity to heed the commands of her intellect, the wisdom to listen to the stirrings of her conscience and the courage to follow the dictates of her heart.

Up to the very end she was faithful to her profession. Insurance was her calling. Insurance was her passion. Insurance was her love. Insurance was her life.

Vangie is not just a person but a force of nature capable of unleashing tremendous energy. She had the time and stamina for everything worth doing, including putting up a party-list two elections ago. I remember meeting her in Makati Sports Club with my entire family where everyone of us signed her petition to register her party-list with the Comelec.

Her radius of activities is extensive as her varied interests are encompassing. She is Planet Venus spinning an orbit as distant as Pluto’s. If she’s a typhoon, she’s signal no. 3, if an earthquake, she’s intensity 10.

No wonder she restored and nourished AIRDC back to life.

Vangie and her husband, Retired Major General Nestor Sadiarin in Bacolod. The couple died in a car accident in Laguna earlier this month.

If she were gifted with a longer life, we wouldn’t know what else she would have brought back to life. In fact, Dear Vangie, you even brought fun and excitement to the dreary and languid lives of our actuaries as much as you have instilled fear in the hearts of the rascals in our industry.

So she was called many names. She’s tough and strong-willed. But to this I say Vangie was kind and fair to everyone.

“She comforted the distressed and distressed the comfortable.”

And to those who say that she was proud and flamboyant, what I can say is that she gave élan to her job.

Hers was a class act.

Thank you Vangie for the friendship and the memories. In the ebb and flow of time, that friendship is the only constant between us and all the people here who love you.

It’s the indestructible bond among us all, which even death cannot unbind.

All the flowers that decked this hall will wither and die, and soon their scent will banish and fade. But the blossoms which sprout from your beautiful soul shall linger and stay with us forever.

Thank you for bringing sunshine and summer to our lives. We lost you this summer, it will all be winter after that.

Goodbye my dear Commissioner.