FLORENCIO B. Blanco, a clarinetist and retired public schools district supervisor, died at the Mariano Marcos Hospital and Medical Center in Batac, Ilocos Norte on Jan. 4, his family announced. He was 12 days short to his 100th milestone.
He is survived by five children, four in California where they are working or enjoying their retirement years, and the fifth, a US Air Force veteran, lives in the Philippines.
Some have called him a “good leader” in the Filipino American community in California where he lived for sometime after retirement, and a long-time president of Annak ti Paoay, the association of those whose roots are from Paoay, the UN Heritage lister town in Ilocos Norte.
During the second world war, he was caught as a guerrilla fighter by Filipino troops sympathetic to Japan’s Imperial Forces but was grabbed off the enemy grip by maternal cousins from the nearby town of Pinili.
As an educator, he taught in Dupax, Nueva Vizcaya immediately after earning his elementary teachers certificate from the Far Eastern University in Manila, where he was first clarinet of the 60-member FEU Band, before moving to different public schools in Paoay and Batac, eventually climbing up the ladder to become supervisor of the Badoc district in Ilocos Norte.
While teaching in a public school in Paoay, along with his wife Salud, also a public school teacher who died in 2022 aged 98, he earned his master’s degree in education from the Northwestern College (now university) in the capital town of Laoag.
He has been fondly called by many as “maestro” – in courtesy to his years of service as a diligent but deferential public school teacher who demonstrated commitment to his mission as an educator.
He is survived by children Gloria Floresa (husband Efren Dumlao), Benedicto (wife Ofelia Verano), Renato (wife Merle Joy Fernandez), Henry (wife Vivian Mamaril), and Marjorie (husband Homer Perdido); 14 grandchildren, and 14 great grandchildren.
He is also survived by seven maternal cousins including Honor Blanco Cabie, opinion editor of Manila Standard.
The funeral will be on Jan. 17 — a day after the children celebrate in Paoay his birthday, and after the memorial Mass at the Iglesia Filipina Independiente Parish church — at the Paoay Municipal Cemetery, beside his wife’s remains.
