No funeral for Rizal vice mayor who died of COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines — The vice mayor of Jalajala town in Rizal province has been added to the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic.

Jose “Jolet” delos Santos, 60, died on Tuesday, about a week after his son, Jom, confirmed that his father had tested positive for the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Delos Santos, also a former mayor, was admitted to a hospital in the province on March 16 due to a bad cough before he was tested for the virus.

The Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday marked Delos Santos’ death as COVID-19-related, although the municipal health officer, Pedro Benigno Beltran, said the vice mayor died of heart attack.

“He was already recovering over the last few days. But as the DOH had said, [the coronavirus] may have triggered the heart attack,” Beltran said.

Jalajala residents could only express sympathies for Delos Santos, who served as Jalajala mayor in the 1990s, through social media.

Cremated

The vice mayor’s remains were immediately cremated outside the town, but his relatives decided not to bring the urn back with them until the community quarantine was lifted. Delos Santos’ wife and children live abroad.

Rizal has recorded the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) region, with 70 patients and 12 fatalities as of March 31.

On Tuesday, another local official, Baras Mayor Kathrine Robles, announced that she, too, caught the virus.

Robles asked people whom she met and had close contact with since March 18 to consult with the municipal health office.

Rizal Gov. Rebecca “Nini” Ynares, 70, and her husband, former Gov. Casimiro “Ito” Ynares, 72, have tested positive for COVID-19.

Pangasinan mayor, wife

“Sadly, my dad also has acquired COVID-19 and is currently confined together with our mom, Gov. Nini,” said Ynares’ son, former Antipolo City Mayor Casimiro “Jun” Ynares III ,on Wednesday.

In Pangasinan province, Bayambang Mayor Cezar Quiambao and his wife, Niña, tested positive for COVID-19, and had received medical treatment. Their doctors said they believed the couple had recovered.

A doctor in Bayambang died recently from the disease.

In a statement, Quiambao said he and his wife would undergo another 14-day quarantine to make sure they did not put anyone at risk.

Pangasinan has recorded 23 COVID-19 patients, including four from Dagupan City.

A 44-year-old male nurse was the first confirmed death due to COVID-19 in Nueva Ecija, according to Fr. Arnold Abelardo, spokesperson of the province’s interagency task force.

—REPORTS FROM MARICAR CINCO, YOLANDA SOTELO AND ARMAND GALANG