In a Facebook post, entertainment journalist Gorgy Rula and filmmaker Armando Reyes said that there was a hullabaloo among the Aguilar family during the sudden death of Filipino folk singer Freddie Aguilar last week because of confusion of how he would be memorialized.
Freddie died of cardiac arrest at the Philippine Heart Center in Quezon City on May 27, 2025 after he was hospitalized for a number of weeks.
Aguilar, Ferdinand Pascual Aguilar in real life, has an interfaith family so there was a discussion of how he would go.
After much thought, his Islamic belief overruled the decision thereby giving him an Islam burial.
Freddie, Abdul Fareed in his Muslim identity, was prepared and buried at the Manila Islamic Cemetery on the same day of his demise.
Following Islamic rites, Aguilar’s remains were initially cleansed (ghusl), wrapped in a white cloth (kafan), prayed over (salat and Janazah) and honored not to be laid in a casket.
The rites were performed by Muntinlupa City Muslim Affairs Office Head Brother Johnny Guiling with the help of Balik Islam Consultative Assembly, Inc. National President Brother Delfen Amia Omar.
Manila Islamic South Cemetery Director Arshad Musa and Solemnizing Officer Imam Termizie Jawali assisted in the ceremony.
Since 2013, Ka Freddie had a relationship with a Muslim girl named Jovie Albao.
In the local Tin Pan Alley, Aguilar made famous the song “Anak (Child),” a tribute to the Filipino son/daughter which became a world hit and translated into hundreds of languages.
I remember when I was in Hanoi, Vietnam attending the 1st ASEAN Documentary Film Festival in 2010 where my short doc “Dumagat,” a foray into the indigenous peoples—tribesmen by the sea—in Infanta, General Nakar and Real, Quezon—was shown at the event and won a consolation prize.
All the filmmakers from the participating ASEAN nations like Singapore, the Philippines, Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand were invited to a bonfire party in one of the exotic beaches in Hanoi and we sang “Anak” in the English version. Surprisingly, most of the delegates were familiar with the song.
They were all congratulating me as a Filipino because the originator of the song was a compatriot.
My friendship with Ka Freddie went a long, long way up to his last breath.
Even if we had some arguments and misunderstanding, we managed, in more ways than one, to bury the hatchet.
Now, the void Freddie has left will be filled up with his music.
Aguilar also made the songs “Estudyante Blues,” “Magdalena,” “Mindanao,” “Pipi, Bulag, Bingi,” “Kumusta Ka?” and a lot more to be held and cherished by the Filipinos and foreigners alike till the end of time.
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