Representative Pedro Romualdo. Photo from https://www.congress.gov.ph
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – Philippine flags flew at half-staff throughout the island province of Camiguin Wednesday in mourning for Representative Pedro Romualdo who died of pneumonia earlier in the day.
“The flags are at half mast island-wide,” Felicisimo Garcia, the provincial government spokesperson, said by phone.
Romualdo succumbed to pneumonia at the St. Luke’s Hospital in Quezon City at dawn Wednesday dawn. He was 77.
Romualdo, who was running for reelection under the Nationalist People’s Coalition, started as a janitor at the provincial capitol of Misamis Oriental in the 1950s and worked his way to the top. He took up law at the University of the East and passed the bar exams in 1965 while working as credit investigator of the now defunct National Cottage Industry Administration (NACIDA) bank.
He was a delegate to the 1971 Constitutional Convention. He served as congressman from 1987 to 1998, and as governor of the province from 1998 to 2007.
“His efforts and leadership led to the development of what Camiguin is today,” Garcia said.
Garcia said Romualdo’s grandson, lawyer Xavier Jesus “XJ” Romualdo, might run as substitute candidate.