Press Secretary Cerge M. Remonde: 1958-2010

By now, our readers and the whole of Cebu (thanks to today’s high tech media) have already known that a dear friend of ours, Cerge M. Remonde, a popular Cebuano broadcaster who once worked with The Freeman, SunStar Daily and DyLa and eventually attained the highest position a media personality can hope to attain, that of Press Secretary, had gone to the great beyond. It was indeed shocking news to us, especially that we have never known that Cerge Remonde had a serious medical problem.

I just finished taping a show with Dangerous Drugs Board Vice-Chairman/Undersecretary Paul Oaminal with Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA-7) Randy Pedroso and his legal chief Atty. Mauro Licen. Instead of going straight back to the office, I decided to do my weekly adoration at the Divine Mercy Chapel in Capitol Parish as it was already 11:30 a.m. But since I was still in AS Fortuna St., I decided to visit the Peace Convent, which has the Blessed Sacrament exposed for adoration. 

Whenever I’m in church, I always switch my cellphone to vibration mode so I would know if people are texting or calling me, although I don’t respond to those texts until I’ve done with my prayers. However inside the convent, my cellphone began vibrating and didn’t seem to stop. The last time something like this happened was when my mentor, Sir Max Soliven passed away. Sensing some kind of urgency, I decided to look at my phone and there were so many text messages asking me to confirm or verify whether or not, Cerge Remonde died. I also got several calls from friends.

I immediately texted my friends at the Malacañang Press Corps and got a confirmation that Cerge was taken to the Makati Medical Center as he was found unconscious in the bathroom of his residence. It was then that I prayed hard for his recovery. But by 11:55 a.m, I got a confirmed text from our editor Jerry Tundag that Cerge had gone to the great beyond! My family’s condolences to his bereaved wife, Mrs. Marit Stinus Remonde and may we ask our readers to please pray for the repose of his soul.

Last year, I have been asking Cerge to be the guest on my tv show and for some reason, Cerge never found the time, although he told me that he would gladly guest our talkshow; after all, he was ahead of me in doing a tv show for SkyCable just a few months earlier. But somehow something would always bring him back to Manila, so he couldn’t go on with our schedule. After three cancellations, it made me realize that Cerge really didn’t own his time, as something would crop up every now and then to prevent him from appearing on tv as he was always on call by the President.

He was supposed to be the first guest on our talkshow for the Year 2010. But then, he once more begged off, knowing that he had already cancelled out three previous schedules. Finally, I asked him to be our special guest for the Sinulog and he was ecstatic to be on the show. But once again, he texted me that he was the special guest for the birthday lunch with our Philippine Star editor Isaac Belmonte. My last text message from Cerge was his asking me to go to Malacañang instead where we would do the taping. But I guess it’s too late now.

Cerge and I have gone a long way. In 1985, he asked me to join a group he created called the People’s Alliance Against Communism (PAAC) because the Sparrow Units were having a field day, shooting policemen in the streets of Cebu City. I readily joined his group as a businessman. Then he was happy that I joined The Philippine Star and The Freeman as a columnist a year later. We were both staunch anti-communist crusaders.

The only time I had a stint on radio was with Cerge Remonde when we had the People’s Economic Council (PEC) hour that I co-hosted with him in DyLa every Thursday at 6:00 p.m. He told me that I was good enough already as he would often skip the show; after all, I was already in the studio. Back then our good friend, Leo Lastimosa was the point man inside the booth handling all our phone calls.

But Cerge had to leave Cebu for a higher calling, when he was Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas (KBP) for six consecutive terms, a feat that has yet to be surpassed. He made enough friends as KBP Chairman and this led him to the hallowed halls of Malacañang as Press Undersectary in charge of Broadcast in 2001, then President of IBC Channel 13 and RPN Channel 9. He was Presidential Management Staff Director General and in Feb. 2009, he took on the job as Press Secretary. We leave you with a short prayer to ask the Lord God almighty to keep the soul of our dear friend Cerge in his eternal embrace and we ask our faithful readers to please say a prayer for the repose of his soul.

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