(1958-2019)

Remedios Deraco Basilio was born on October 21, 1958, to Elias and Belen (Deraco) Basilio in San Fernando, Pampanga, the Philippines. She was one of five siblings born to the couple; the other Basilio children were Cristina, Dolores, Edgardo, and Jesua.

Sister Remedios graduated from Jose Abad Santos High School in San Fernando in 1975 and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in agriculture/crop science from Pampanga Agricultural College in 1981. She entered the Dominican Sisters of Our Lady of Remedies on October 26, 1986 and was received as a novice in November of the next year.

Immediately after entering, Sister Remedios, who became known as Sister “Medz,” served in pastoral ministry in Santo Tomas until January 1987 and spent the rest of her pre-novitiate year (February-November 1987) as a catechist in Santa Lucia, San Fernando. She was received as a novice on November 7 of that year, and once her canonical novitiate year was complete, she spent eight months (December 1988-August 1989) in pastoral work in Arayat, a city in Pampanga.

She made first profession on November 7, 1989, and began a ministry in social action that took her to the cities of Mabalacat, Pampanga (November 1989-May 1993), Floridablanca, Pampanga (June 1994-May 1997), and San Fernando (June 1999-May 2001. From June 1997 to May 1999, she was treasurer of a school in Guagua.