DAGUPAN CITY—“I will never be able to get over the pain of losing my daughter,” says House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. after he started distributing firefighting suit to the Dagupan City Fire Department in memory of Kristina Casimira or KC de Venecia who perished in a fire that gutted their Makati residence City a year ago.

De Venecia, misty-eyed, told local reporters here the other day, “I will never get over the tragedy of losing my child”.

He said “it’s not part of psychological make up of man that we bury our children”.

“Our children should bury us. It’s a very difficult psychological barrier,” he added. KC was 16 when she died. Last Saturday was the first time de Venecia shared his sentiments to the media about KC’s untimely demise.

De Venecia gave a firefighting suit to the local fire station here led by Fire Marshall Chief Inspector Manuel Manuel. Yesterday, the PANDA Volunteer Fire Brigade, a Filipino-Chinese group of firefighters, received also another unit. These are the first of the 30 units to be distributed nationwide.

This week, other key cities like Manila, Makati, Quezon, Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga, Angeles, Urdaneta, Baguio City, Alaminos and San Carlos City, among others will next receive their share at the Speaker’s office in Congress within the week.

The turn over will be made through Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Angelo Reyes and National Fire Department Director Rogelio Asignado.

De Venecia said he has been working this project for the last one year since KC died in the fire.

Each unit costs $5,000 each including taxes. He added that he’s going to talk to President Gloria Arroyo and Budget Secretary Romulo Neri and the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee so they can buy more for the 115 fire departments in 115 cities.

He said he is going to ask the governors, congressmen and senators to contribute a portion of their pork barrel like what he did “to help people trapped in fire”.

“My daughter could have been saved if the firefighters had their equipment,” de Venecia said.

He added that he and his son Joey tried to save KC but the fire was so strong when that tragic night of Dec. 15, 2004 came. He said the firefighters could not save KC because they could not enter the room where she was trapped because firemen had no firefighting suits.

The suit was bought in Vienna, Austria when he was invited as guest of the Austrian parliament few months ago and saw the suit in action.

The suit is made of glass fiber weave and carbon fiber weave. It’s an overall suit with sewn-in hood and zipped overboots, integrated rucksack for breathing apparatus, safety zip for opening from the outside, adjustable with one point quick release fastening. It has an in-laid belt system for waist adjustment, safety glass and three-finger mitten. Its bag is made of robust cotton weave with polyurethane coating.

“I started this to make Filipinos see how e can help them during fire incidents,” de Venecia said.

He added,” We are very proud of our fire department but we need to equip them.”

De Venecia said he, together with wife Gina, had also inaugurated the modern ward in the Philippine General Hospital for burn victims two months ago. Aside from this his wife, together with other grieving mothers led the inauguration of a center in Quezon City for grieving mothers during the first death anniversary of KC

He said he is considering putting up a separate center for grieving fathers.

Asked what he does whenever he remembers KC, de Venecia said,”Well, I just pray, stop what I’m doing and pray and I just cry quietly then do my work’.

Busy with work in Manila as speaker and as congressman of Pangasinan fourth district, he said his life is spent managing situations, managing crisis, talking to various groups, offering solutions to problems.

“Thank God. God has given me good health so that I can continue thinking and working,” he said.

He added, “Work is the true elixir of life. The happiest man is the busiest man. Once you believe that you have reached the summit, then your decline begins. Then you must continue struggling towards the summit”.