Cebu City representative Raul del Mar dies at 79
MANILA, Philippines — Rep. Raul del Mar (Cebu City) has died at the age of 79, House Secretary General Jocelia Bighani Sipin confirmed on Tuesday.
Sipin said del Mar’s family did not give any further details on his passing.
House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco extended condolences to the family and constituents of Del Mar, whom he remembered as a lawmaker who was never absent, having attended plenary sessions and public hearings virtually while in the hospital.
“He was a mentor to me and many others,” Velasco said. “He would have been a deputy speaker under my term.”
Del Mar represented Cebu’s first district for nine terms, beginning in 1987 when Congress was reopened after the restoration of democracy following the fall of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos. He served as deputy speaker for two terms from 2004 to 2010.
The Cebu Citizens Press Council honored Del Mar as someone who helped “the collective effort of media and citizens to have a free but responsible press in Cebu and improve the craft of journalists.”
Among the measures that he helped pass was the law that guaranteed that journalists for broadcast, online and wire agencies would not be required to divulge their sources. The law previously covered only print journalists.
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