Chester Sam­bra­no

Lead Ed­i­tor- News­gath­er­ing

chester.sam­bra­no@guardian.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter and Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar paid trib­ute to Dr Daphne Collins Phillips-Gaskin dur­ing her fu­ner­al yes­ter­day, de­scrib­ing her as a de­vot­ed pub­lic ser­vant and schol­ar.

Phillips-Gaskin died on De­cem­ber 3, 2025, at the age of 82.

“To­geth­er we share your sor­row, and we ho­n­our her life with deep re­spect and grat­i­tude,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

She quot­ed a po­et, re­flect­ing on life and loss: “Death is not ex­tin­guish­ing the light. It is on­ly putting out the lamp be­cause the dawn has come.”

She said those words spoke pow­er­ful­ly to Phillips-Gaskin’s life.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar high­light­ed Phillips-Gaskin’s dis­tin­guished ca­reer, not­ing her work as a nurse and mid­wife, and her aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ments, in­clud­ing a doc­tor­al schol­ar­ship in so­ci­ol­o­gy, gen­der equal­i­ty and com­mu­ni­ty em­pow­er­ment at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies.

As a se­nior lec­tur­er, she be­lieved knowl­edge car­ried an oblig­a­tion to up­lift and strength­en com­mu­ni­ties.

In pub­lic life, Phillips-Gaskin served as a sen­a­tor and gov­ern­ment min­is­ter in the UNC ad­min­is­tra­tions from 1995 to 2001, help­ing shape a more hu­mane na­tion­al agen­da.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­called the courage re­quired for Phillips-Gaskin to join the par­ty at that time, com­ing from her Bel­mont com­mu­ni­ty.

“For some, the word UNC was a bad word. But Daphne had the courage of her con­vic­tions, and she was brave to fight for the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go, all the peo­ple,” she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­count­ed Phillips-Gaskin’s achieve­ments in cul­ture, fam­i­ly law re­form, gen­der pol­i­cy and pro­tec­tions against do­mes­tic vi­o­lence.

She em­pha­sised that Phillips-Gaskin fo­cused on peo­ple rather than sta­tis­tics, help­ing thou­sands of women gain skills train­ing and em­ploy­ment and sup­port­ing fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties in need.

PM al­so recog­nised Phillips-Gaskin’s his­toric role as the first black woman to act as prime min­is­ter, not­ing her calm au­thor­i­ty and prin­ci­pled lead­er­ship.

“Her judg­ment was steady. Her coun­sel was wise. Her loy­al­ty nev­er wa­vered,” she said.

PM re­called mo­ments when Phillips-Gaskin stood pub­licly at per­son­al cost, demon­strat­ing courage and loy­al­ty that she de­scribed as eter­nal­ly in­spir­ing.

Clos­ing her trib­ute, Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­scribed Phillips-Gaskin as a “great soul” whose work lives on in the laws she shaped, the women she em­pow­ered and the fam­i­lies she pro­tect­ed.

“Daphne, go rest high on that moun­tain. Your work on earth is done. Go to heav­en a-shout­ing love for the fa­ther and the son,” she said.