Marky Cielo 1st Death Anniversary

The daughter of our next door neighbor here in Illinois, a teenager, alerted us on the death of Marky Cielo on December 7, 2008. I immediately checked the news and on the next days, my wife and I were glued to Youtube and other Filipino showbiz websites as news of the young Igorot's death, and various speculations surround it, dominated the networks until his funeral more than a week later. It was a shocking event - a young very promising actor at the peak of his career found dead by his mother on his bedroom. There were many speculations about his death and to date, the family has refused to provide additional details except that he was found lying on the floor of his bedroom and that he was rushed immediately to the hospital. It has been a year now - in a few days, as is the custom of Igorots and I believe most Filipinos in general, his 1st death anniversary will be observed by at least, his family members and closest friends.

I did a quick online search to see if there are any plans on how the day will be observed. No news. In the BIBAKNETS mailing group, there is no additional information either. It looks like it's going to be observed solemnly and privately - as should really be the case. From last year, I have received the following very few updates on Marky:

- His mother, Mildred, hasn't washed some of his clothes in an effort to retain "his scent";
- He was given a star at the Eastwood City Walk of Fame (Eastwood was our family's favorite tambayan when we still lived in Provident Village, Marikina);
- He has a Wikipedia page.

Interestingly enough, his Wikipedia page contains multiple issues. From the comments at the top, the information on his page contains "weasel words" that compromise the neutrality or of the information befitting an encyclopedia. It also appears to represent a biased viewpoint and could have been edited by a person with a conflict of interest. How they come up with these indicators - no one knows, but it does show how strictly Wikipedia is filtering the information in its pages. Not bad at all. The longest section in Marky's Wikipedia entry? It's the one marked under DEATH.

It would be a good idea to write Marky's mother an encouraging letter for the holidays. She doesn't know me, but I'm a kailyan; someone from the same region who have felt the loss of a loved one before as well. When Marky first joined the Starstruck contest and became a household name, a lot of acquaintances teased me on our similar features. Magkamukha raw po kami. I didn't agree. The young man was really good looking. I'm what you may call "average". But we do have one thing in common. We both are proud of our Igorot roots.

Above photo is a screenshot taken from MarkyCielo.net .