Tia Pusit, 66, dies of heart ailment

CEBU, Philippines - Tia Pusit, the pretty, loveable comedienne battling heart and kidney ailments for months, died late Thursday (October 2) evening, according to a radio breaking report, quoting a text message from her sister, the actress Nova Villa.

Bro. Jun Banaag of DZMM had requested listeners to continue praying for the recovery of Tia Pusit, his friend and broadcast colleague, and played a couple of songs just before midnight. When he got back on air a few minutes later, he read a message he had just received from Nova Villa saying her sister had passed on, and was “free of her pains.”

Tia Pusit – Myrna Villanueva in real life – had been confined at the Philippine Heart Center in Quezon City and was battling heart ailments with kidney complications. Her four children had been raising funds for a procedure to insert stents in order to ease the aortic aneurysm she was suffering fom.

Last August 26, Luigene Yanoria of Yahoo.com reported that Tia Pusit, 66, “remains conscious, but interaction with visitors is limited,” because doctors said stress – or even laughter –could further rip open her aorta.

The children were trying to raise money to finance two operations immediately needed: the placement of stent draft worth P450,000 and double bypass that would cost up to P400,000, said Yanoria.

They approached several politicians for whom Tia Pusit had campaigned in the past, but at the time of Yanoria’s interview, only two (Senator Nancy Binay and detained Senator Jinggoy Estrada’s wife Precy, who gave P50,000 each) had responded so far.

Tia Pusit single-handedly raised her four children when her husband died 20 years ago. – Interaksyon.com