Mila C. Mateo

In 1941, World War 2 was brewing. The family of Luis Pepito Cabrera and Agripina Ducante Cabrera, with their 12 children Sofronio, Angelo, Candelaria, Emiliano, Benjamin, Porferio, Asuncion, Victora, Pablito, Mamierta, Ramona, and Jose were busy making war preparations by constructing a big boat (Basnigan) to use for easy escape from enemy. On May 21, 1941 a baby girl, their thirteenth child, was born. The same day they finished building the boat, their eldest son Sofronio also finished his army cadet training in Cebu city’s Camp Lapulapu, came home for a few days rest before going to duty in the Philippine army. He begged that his new and youngest baby sister be named “Mila” and the big boat be christened as the “Mila” as well to serve as a lucky charm to face the challenge of the impending war. Being a United States colony, the Philippines was also their enemy. True to their proposition, World War 2 broke on December 7, 1941 when Japanese war planes attacked Pearl Harbor. The boat “Mila” proved handy in moving the Cabrera Family to other islands to evade the Japanese ostracization with the little baby girl as a mascot. According to Tatay Luis, the Mila had evacuated hundreds of people to islands of Leyte and Masbate during the war and also saved his whole family. Not long after, the 14th child, Eduardo completed the Cabrera family.

After World War 2 ended, the Cabreras resettled in their Sampero Hills property in Daanbantayan, Cebu where Mila grew up and started school in Tapilon, Daanbantayan Cebu. While in grade school, she showed talent in music and dancing. At an early age, she learned to play the guitar and piano on her own by ear but never learned to read music. After graduating from the Daanbantayan Provincial High School in 1958, she went on to study at the Southwestern University in Cebu City. At first, she enrolled for a Commerce and Business Administration course. Then one of her friends convinced her to take up Optometry instead, for according to that friend, you can be in business and a doctor at the same time. So she did, and graduated with a degree as a Doctor of Optometry in March 1964. She took the board exam in the same year and passed it on the first try. While waiting for the board exam result, she was employed by the Santiago Optical Clinic in Dumaguete City, Mindanao. The opportunity gave her the needed clinical experience in dealing with patients and customers. When the board examination results came out, she passed it with flying colors. She returned home to Sampero Hills in Tapilon and had a grand celebration since she was the first full-fledged doctor in her family, as most of her sisters were teachers.

In 1966 Mila opened her own private optical clinic in Lapu-Lapu city until 1968. It was an instant success. Now, that her practice was booming, she found time to pursue some of her talents and interests. She found some new professional who shared the same interests and organized a new group of talented singers and dancers called “The Jammers Club”. They were in demand at the time and were asked to perform on big occasions and celebrations and fiestas. She enjoyed her life and her success, but one day her former employer Mr. Santiago visited her and invited her to their new Optical clinic in Davao city. It had a complete brand new laboratory and she could not refuse the offer so she sold her practice and moved to Davao city in 1968. It was a good move for her. As she was the big boss, she worked with two other doctors, some receptionists and a number of technicians. She was busy but she was enjoying her life, had a number of suitors, proposals but had said “not yet” to these men.

One Saturday afternoon in July 1969, a friend visited her in her office and introduced a new acquaintance who was a petty officer of the US Navy. It was more than an instant attraction, their interest and outlook in life seemed to be in the same direction, so within two days, they both agreed to get married. She resigned from her job and they flew to Cebu to ask her parents and relatives to consider their plan. A week thereafter, they got married in a civil ceremony with Judge Kintaner on July 14, 1969. The following day, her new groom had to return back to Long Beach California Naval hospital in California for duty. Three months later, she joined her husband in Long Beach. She landed a job with an ophthalmologist group of Doctor Eglin as a dispensing optician. In December 1970, she moved back to the Philippines where her husband was assigned at the naval hospital in Subic Bay as the leading petty officer of the operating rooms. To keep herself abreast with her profession, she opened an optical clinic in Olongapo City. She had a good practice, but it was interrupted by her pregnancy. On March 20 1972, she delivered a baby girl and named her Milani “Dial”, now a Registered Nurse at the Naval Branch Health Clinic in Chula Vista. Then in June of 1972, she decided to stay behind in Cebu city where her husband reported for duty on board the aircraft carrier Coral Sea. In November of 1973, she moved again to the Naval Reserve station in Amarillo, Texas. On May 25 1974, her second and last child, a baby boy, was born and named Melvin Vernon. He is now a Technical Sergeant assigned at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. In 1976, Mila moved once again to San Diego, California while her husband attended training for one year in the advanced hospital corps for independent duty corpsman. She continued living in San Diego while her husband was to the USS Ramsey FFG2 in 1977 as senior medical representative on board. In 1980, Mila was back again in the Philippines since her husband was assigned with US embassy in Manila. In January 1984, she returned back to San Diego with her children to stay while her husband went to field medical school at Camp Pendleton before reporting to his new duty station with the Naval Construction battalion 5 in Port Hueneme, California. This gave her the opportunity to work in the Navy Exchange Optical until her husband was transferred to the Naval Medical Center in San Diego in 1987. From 1987-1990 Mila worked as a dispensing optician at the National Fedco and received multiple awards in her position.

In June of 1990 before her husband’s retirement, Mila went ahead and returned to the Philippines so her children could attend college there. She purchased the land divided between her siblings to develop a large 6 hectare estate flowing with mango trees and various other fruits trees all tended to by her husband. For 23 years, she and her husband spent their retirement in the Philippines with interval visits to the United States or from her children who returned to the US to reside. Mila and her husband became active in their community and were instrumental in creating the new parish Saint Michael Parish in Tapilon, Mila’s hometown area. She was the first regent of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate International (DMII), a Catholic women’s charity group. Mila was also involved in fundraising activities for her hometown church such as carolling in nearby town and barrios. Every December Mila and her husband also provided sacks of rice and canned goods to be distributed to the poorest of the poor in the community. She financed and organized the DMII choir.

Mila liked to spend her time sewing, dancing, playing the piano, guitar and dancing. She was a socialite in her later years and liked to host parties and special events in her home and in her estate rest house. Eventually, small town provincial life no longer appealed to Mila so in 2005, she and her husband bought a house in Cebu City and moved into it in 2006 leaving her provincial estate to be maintained by relatives. They became involved in Guadalupe church. Mila continued to be involved in the DMII of that parish and the sponsored underprivileged and talented students in Guadalupe.

Unfortunately, in January 2013, she developed pneumonia and some gastrointestinal problems. She was hospitalized first at Chong Hua Medical Center, Cebu and then Cebu Doctors University Hospital before coming back to San Diego for further treatment in February 26, 2013 after a liver mass was incidentally found in an ultrasound. She was diagnosed with Stage 4 liver cancer and had received the Transarterial bead chemo embolization (TABE) treatment. Unfortunately, she was not physically fit for any further treatment and the cancer proved to be too aggressive. She finally went to be with the Lord and rested in peace on May 29, 2013 early in the morning in her daughter’s home.

Mila is survived by her husband of 43 years, Vicente Frondoza Mateo (75 years old), daughter Maria Milani Dial Mateo Dualos (41 years old) and Son Melvin Vernon Cabrera Mateo (39 years old). She has 3 grandchildren, Jhevri Vincent Mateo Dualos (18 years old), Lanriel Rhose Mateo Dualos (17 years old) and Rebekah Hope Yongco Mateo (1 year old). Her son-in-law is Uriel Mangubat Dualos and daughter-in-law is Maria Mildred Yongco Mateo. Her funeral service is scheduled for June 10, 2013 at the Glen Abbey Mortuary main chapel and her final resting place will be at the Glen Abbey Memorial Park.