Raymund Isaac: A jolly, funny ray of sunshine

Last Sept. 3 (Sept. 4, Manila time), social media was abuzz with news of the passing of celebrity photographer Raymund Isaac in San Francisco. Immediately, his close celebrity friends like Aga and Charlene Muhlach, Vilma Santos, Luis Manzano, Sen. Kiko Pangilinan and Lea Salonga, to name a few, expressed disbelief and sadness at the heartbreaking news.

Raymund had flown to the US in July, but as the month drew to a close, he requested prayers on his Facebook page because he had tested positive for COVID-19. He was scared because he was all alone in a hospital half a world away from home. Not even his partner, Jayson Vicente, could be with him. Raymund warned everyone not to take the virus lightly as the threat and struggle were real. From time to time, I would see updates from his close friends requesting for more prayers as his condition was not improving.

I met Raymund back in our college days, when he became my partner at the cotillion of my high school classmate, Rowena Hipolito. Back then, he was at De La Salle University while I was at UP Diliman, and I found him to be very sociable and fun to be with. A few years after, I heard that he began dabbling in photography and was making a name for himself. We had the chance to work together when he was assigned to take the publicity photos of Mikee Cojuangco (whom I wrote about a couple of weeks ago), who was launched as the Swatch model in 1991.

Around that time, my mom was also the editor-in-chief of Lifestyle Asia, and she assigned Raymund and I to visit Palawan to write a feature on its beaches. We booked an early morning flight and were already mid-air when the plane was forced to turn around due to bad weather. We were so disappointed our weekend in Palawan didn’t push through. After that, we’d see each other occasionally in social events and Raymund would always be a jolly, funny ray of sunshine.

Last Aug. 30, I had a pictorial for an upcoming project with photographer Mapoo Magracia, Raymund’s assistant. I asked him how Raymund was doing and Mapoo replied that Raymund was still intubated in the ICU. I was so sad to learn of Raymund’s passing a few days later.

My deepest condolences to Raymund’s family, his siblings Edward and Anna and to his partner, Jayson Vicente.

Deadline for voter registration

It’s Sept. 13 and that means there are 17 days left until COMELEC’s Sept. 30 deadline for voter registration. I took my daughter Gabbie to the Pasig COMELEC office to register on Sept. 7 and was pleasantly surprised to see how fast and efficient the process was. Because we had downloaded the necessary forms prior to our visit, we were done after only 20 minutes. Gabbie will be a first-time voter next year and she’s excited to exercise her right to vote.

Already, I am curious to see how candidates will campaign during the pandemic. I am quite certain they will turn to social media, TV and radio since it will be difficult and even illegal to organize rallies or to campaign door-to-door. Let’s all get to know our candidates very well and vote wisely next year.