Filipinos accompanied Cardinal Jaime Sin's body to its final resting place with honors and expressions of gratitude for the man who helped steer the nation through two presidential crises.

Cardinal Sin's body was entombed in the basement of Manila's cathedral June 28 following state honors and a funeral Mass attended by an estimated 5,000 people, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand.

Before the Mass, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo led the ceremony honoring the late cardinal, who called people to prayer vigils in the streets in the "People Power" movement that led to the downfall of Presidents Ferdinand Marcos, in 1986, and Joseph Estrada, in 2001.

Cardinal Sin, retired archbishop of Manila, died June 21 from multiple organ failure following a long bout with a kidney ailment. He became archbishop of Manila in 1974, was named a cardinal two years later and resigned as archbishop in September 2003, less than a month after turning 75.

During his homily, Cardinal Sin's former secretary, Bishop Socrates Villegas of Balanga, said the cardinal's last word was "vamos," Spanish for "let's go." Bishop Villegas said this was consistent with Cardinal Sin's nature of inviting people rather than commanding them.

"He did not send us off; he walked with us and held our hands as we walked through the uncertainties of life," Bishop Villegas said.

Cardinal Sin's call to prayer in the streets in 1986 to prevent bloodshed between opposing factions of the military also was an example of this inviting spirit, along with his many calls for Marian year commemorations or rallies against abortion and contraception.

"Let us go to the poor and give homes to homeless" was another example Bishop Villegas gave, citing Cardinal Sin Village, a project the cardinal began after retiring as archbishop of Manila.

Bishop Villegas also spoke of how the cardinal sought to make peace among politicians and helped resolve labor disputes.

Addressing the late church leader, Bishop Villegas said, "Your Eminence, because you told us to make peace, peacemakers we will be, we whom you have left behind to fight immoral governance as you always did."

Cardinal Sin was the first Philippine cardinal to be buried with state honors. Troops escorted his casket in a parade around the cathedral grounds, ending at the entrance to the cathedral, where Arroyo folded the Philippine flag draped on the casket and handed it to Cardinal Sin's younger brother, Ramon Sin.

Cardinal Ricardo Vidal of Cebu praised Cardinal Sin for understanding "the longings of the Filipino people," seeing "what the Filipino people are capable of" and "(taking) a wager on people's ability to transcend self-interest and work for the common good."

"The truth that he spoke to us will guide us to do what righteousness demands from us, for do we not desire today the same justice, the same righteousness, the same things that he spoke when he was with us?" he asked.

In his message, Archbishop Fernando Capalla of Davao, president of the Philippines bishops' conference, noted contradictions about Cardinal Sin that he said are common to all great people. The archbishop said the late cardinal "was loved and he was disliked, he was a gentle pastor and an unyielding prophet, a serious organizer and a witty jester."

While Cardinal Sin protected the tradition of the church, "he was also a progressive who preferred to work along the frontiers, where brutal poverty broke human lives," Archbishop Capalla said.

Asian bishops and cardinals, and clergy and religious from the Philippines and other countries were among the 2,000 people inside the cathedral along with Arroyo, Vice President Noli de Castro, former President Corazon Aquino, current and past government officials, and foreign diplomats.

Asian church leaders who joined the funeral included Cardinal Paul Shan Kuo-hsi of Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Cardinal Peter Seiichi Shirayanagi, retired archbishop of Tokyo; Cardinal Julius Darmaatmadja of Jakarta, Indonesia; and Archbishop Charles Maung Bo of Yangon, Myanmar. U.S. Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles also attended the funeral.

Archbishop Antonio Franco, Vatican nuncio to the Philippines, read a message from Pope Benedict XVI thanking Cardinal Sin for his "promotion of the dignity, common good and national unity of the Philippine people."

In the plaza in front of the cathedral, a crowd estimated at 3,000 joined in the Mass through viewing screens that showed the ceremony inside.

After the Mass, bishops, priests, nuns, Cardinal Sin's relatives, vicars and staff who had served in his residence and the chancery took the cardinal's body to the basement of the cathedral, where it was entombed. The bodies of other Manila archbishops also are entombed there.