DOH exec dies of cardiac arrest

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) has lost a hard-working civil servant following the death of its former spokesman Lyndon Lee Suy.

Lee Suy died of cardiac arrest at around 1p.m. yesterday.  He was 55.

He was doing a lecture at the Our Lady of Fatima University in Valenzuela City when he complained of difficulty in breathing. He was rushed to the Philippine Heart Center where he expired. 

Lee Suy was DOH assistant secretary for Health Policy and Systems Development Team at the time of his death. He joined the agency in 2003. He used to be the program manager for Dengue and Infectious Disease.      

He rose to fame after former president Benigno Aquino III recommended him to become the agency’s spokesman at the height of the outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Corona Virus (MERS-CoV). 

Aquino was impressed when Lee Suy, during an emergency meeting in Malacañang, was able to lay down strategies on tracing the co-plane passengers of a suspected MERS-CoV case who came to the Philippines.

Lee Suy was among the DOH officials slapped with criminal complaints before the Department of Justice and National Bureau of Investigation over the Dengvaxia fiasco, which erupted in late 2017.