By J. Irving

January 21, 2026, marks what should have been my mother’s 100th birthday.

I cannot bring myself to call it “happy.”

This day is heavy with grief — born not of age or fate, but of injustice. An injustice committed by Barangay No. 8 of Daet and the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of Camarines Norte, who chose to defy RTC court orders that required the return of her property, and instead stripped it from her through a suit for eminent domain.

My mother died with a broken heart.

She lived a life of quiet decency, of doing good without expecting anything in return—yet in her final years, she was treated not with gratitude, but with cruelty and disregard. She was made to feel powerless in the very town she called home. In the end, she never even had a house in her own hometown.

I say this without bitterness, only with truth.

She was a kindhearted woman. Not once in her long life was she known to be malicious or unjust. I challenge anyone—anyone at all—to come forward and say that she ever wronged them.

And yet, she was wronged and was shoved to her untimely death.

This injustice has reached the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) with then Secretary Ed Año, and I hope it will finally receive the attention of Secretary Jonvic Remulla it deserves, together with the former Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Boying Remulla, now the Ombudsman. Not out of vengeance, but out of accountability—so that those responsible may reflect on the harm they caused, and so that the name of public service is not further stained, nor the leadership of PRESIDENT FERDINAND R. MARCOS JR. be burdened by the actions of those who forgot what is right, justice and humanity mean.

If conscience still has a voice, let it speak today.

This is not just about land.

It is about a centenarian mother who deserved dignity—and was denied.