Sister Porferia “Pingping” Ocariza, one of the icons of the 1986 people power revolution, died on Tuesday, December 22.
Sr. Ocariza, a member of the Daughters of St. Paul, passed away after a long battle with cancer.
She was 63.
News of her passing was announced on her congregation’s Facebook page on December 23.
On the front line of the barricades, Sr. Ocariza was among the nuns who led the praying of the rosary amid a volatile national crisis.
A photo of her and Sr. Teresita Burias praying the rosary in front of soldiers has since become an iconic photograph of the revolution.
Her confrere Sr. Rose Agtarap described the nun as a “brave soldier of Christ” who “fought for the people’s freedom and spread the Good News tirelessly”.
“And until the end, you witnessed to the power of prayer, perseverance and in caring for the nature,” Sr. Agtarap said.
In an interview with the Catholic News Service in 2016, Sr. Ocariza said her experience in the uprising had a huge impact on her faith and vocation.
“Because for me at that time when we were facing the tanks, I believed heavily that God was there,” she said. “God was there as if the seed [of democracy] was being planted.”