Row with guv may have been the reason: No Capitol rites for vice guv

CEBU, Philippines - Despite being the second highest official in the province, the remains of Cebu Vice Governor Gregorio Sanchez Jr. will not be brought to the Provincial Capitol.

Busay, Cebu City barangay captain Eliodoro “Yody” Sanchez, the spokesman of the vice governor’s family, said that Sanchez will no longer be honored at the Capitol.

Yody said the family and acting Vice Governor Agnes Magpale have agreed that the Provincial Board will hold a necrological service at Crystal Palace after the session on Monday.

Yody did not categorically state why Sanchez’s body will not be brought to the Capitol. But speculations are ripe that the reason is due to the conflict between Sanchez and Governor Gwendolyn Garcia. 

Magpale said it was Sanchez’s family who requested that the PB necrological service be held at the Crystal Palace.

There was a suggestion to bring the body of Sanchez to the Malacañang sa Sugbo, being the highest elected official of the Liberal Party in the province. But Yody said the family turned it down.

Yody said the family prefers that Sanchez’s body should stay at the Crystal Palace of Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes in Nivel Hills, Lahug, Cebu City until his burial.

He and Sanchez’s daughter, Grezilda “Gigi” Zaballero, said the burial date is May 8 not May 7, as earlier reported, at the Queen City Memorial Garden.

Sanchez’s body is open for public viewing at the Crystal Palace and a daily Mass is offered every 8:00 p.m.

Yody said those who wish to see the remains of the vice governor can drop by the Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes, where a shuttle van is waiting to bring them to the Crystal Palace.

Last night, LP members offered a Mass for Sanchez, being the party’s highest elected official in the province.

LP provincial chairman Hilario Davide III said they have not yet received any information whether President Benigno Aquino III will visit Sanchez’s wake.

Aquino has already sent flower while LP posted condolences on its website.

“LP would like to convey its deepest condolences and sympathies to the family of the late Cebu Vice Governor Greg Sanchez. May his soul rest in peace,” the party said on its website.

Sanchez, 68, succumbed to lung cancer around 2:40 a.m. last Friday at the Chong Hua Hospital.

He has been confined in different hospitals in Cebu City and Manila since January.

But his family announced only last week that he has been suffering from stage 4 lung cancer. — /LPM (FREEMAN NEWS)