Leyte Samar Daily Express
TACLOBAN CITY—The Espina family of Biliran have expressed their gratitude to friends and supporters who are grieved for the passing away of their patriarch former Congressman and Mayor Gerardo Espina, Sr.
Both Biliran Governor Gerardo, Jr. and Congressman Rogelio said they thanked those who visited the wake of their father at the Arlington chapel in Quezon City.
“Mga mahal naming Biliranon, (our) dad Gerry Espina, Sr. passed away at St. Luke’s Hospital this morning [Feb. 6] due to pneumonia. He died peacefully and without pain in his sleep,” the Espina brothers said in a statement.
Espina passed away at the age of 77. In October last year, he resigned as mayor of Kawayan, Biliran due to his frail condition.
The interment of Espina is set on Tuesday, Feb. 12 at the Loyola Memorial Park in Parañaque after the 9:00 a.m. mass at the Arlington memorial chapel.
Before his last foray in politics, Espina was three-term congressman of Biliran from the 10th to 12th Congresses and mayor of capital town Naval.
He was a recipient of three US scholarship grants, the Smith/Mundt, Ford Foundation and Fulbright scholarships all at the same time, 1962-1964, University of Oregon, USA.
Well known all over Metro Manila where he was a tri-media journalist and where he was elected in 1971 and 1978 as Manila Constitutional Convention delegate and assemblyman respectively, he decided to relocate to Biliran province in 1994 when Biliran, his birthplace and a former sub-province of Leyte province, became a regular province in 1992. (REYAN L. ARINTO)
