Dumaguete City Vice Mayor Alan Gel Cordova died yesterday morning after he collapsed during the charity bike event organized by the 302nd Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army. He was 53.
Doctors at the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital attempted to revive him but Cordova succumbed to what was initially believed to be cardiac arrest that led to fatal arrhythmia.
Cordova joined the bike-for-a-cause, headed by Col. Leonardo Peña, commander of the 302nd IB, and collapsed along the national highway near St. Paul University in Dumaguete City.
He and other participants arrived in Dumaguete from Tanjay City, Negros Oriental, about 30 kilometers north of the capital.
Meanwhile, regional director Leocadio Trovela of the Department of Interior and Local Government in Central Visayas, assured that there will be no vacuum left at the Sangguniang Panlungsod following Cordova’s death.
The SP suspended its sessions since last week after several of its members tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019, and are “incapacitated” at the moment as they are under isolation.
Cordova was the first to have contracted the virus but returned to work on Thursday after he tested negative for Covid-19.
However, six councilors tested positive afterward and three regular personnel of the SP were also infected, lawyer Arthur Fran Tolcidas, secretary to the SP, said.
The SP continues to work on a skeleton force but is awaiting word on who will replace Cordova as its presiding officer.
Cordova is survived by his wife, Marife Ligon, a barangay councilor of Piapi in Dumaguete, and their three daughters.
Cordova was a lawyer and a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point in Virginia, and served in the Philippine Army’s Scout Ranger before entering politics.*PNA
