You had me terribly devastated, Cerge!

Let met start by letting the world know how devastated I was — still am — by the sudden, nay, untimely death of Press Secretary Cerge M. Remonde.

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Cerge shocked his friends and colleagues in the local media community with his sudden passing. It was so sudden that I, for one, could not believe, at first, the barrage of text messages I got Tuesday morning.

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Having been used to receiving text scams, I thought those messages were yet another batch of scams. Until Jerry Tundag gave me a mobile voice call at 11:47 a.m. to inform me about Cerge's passing. He sounded sad.

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Cerge's demise came about 48 hours after he texted me from the Cebu City Sports Center where he was watching the Sinulog presentation with Mayor Tomas Osmeña.

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It was a brief text message. "Pit Senyor, Dad!," it said. He would always take time out from his busy activities to text me "Hi, Dad!" everytime he was in town.

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Why did Cerge call me "Dad?" That would make another interesting topic for this column in the future.

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I have watched Cerge's media career from Day One and I have seen his devotion to his calling. We worked closely together (especially on weekends) from the day he first plunged into journalism to the day he decided to make a career shift. From print to broadcast.

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Cerge had a religious streak in him. Because we worked weekends, including Sundays, he would ask me to leave our desks for a while to catch the last Mass at the Cebu Cathedral which is just a stone's throw away from our workplace.

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I remember his telling me once: "You know, Idol (he called me that before he shifted to calling me Dad), nakasa'a na tas Ginoo sa atong pagtrabaho'g Domingo. Doble na nya atong sa'a kun di pa gyud ta mosimba." Then I would joke: "OK, sige, Padre, manimba ta."

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   The high position Cerge held in the government never got into his head. He had always considered himself a newsman and in Cebu he was simply Cerge to his colleagues. Not a sign of disrespect but a sign of endearment.

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Let me end today's column by repeating my words as I started. I was devastated by the death of Press Secretary Cerge Remonde. The last time my teardrops fell was when my wife passed away two years ago. They fell again today on the passing away of a dear friend and colleague.

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My condolences to Cerge's dear wife Marit and to the members of his grieving family.

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