‘Kap Olga’ succumbs to stage 4 cancer

CEBU, Philippines - Former barangay chief Olga Villamor of Tungkop, Minglanilla town died Friday of stage four liver cancer. She was 50.

Villamor, fondly called “Kap Olga,” left seven children, the youngest being 13 years old. 

Villamor, after losing in the last barangay elections, went to the University of the Visayas where she was able to finish just last semester of her master’s degree on public administration.

Eric Pagar, her cousin, said she was supposed to get her diploma and cum laude honors next month but her “untimely death” had prevented her. 

Pagar said they only learned that Villamor had cancer just last Tuesday, about two weeks since she was admitted at Chong Hua Hospital.

He said last Tuesday, her doctors told them that the patient, who was complaining of shortness of breath, had only six months to live because her cancer had already reached its last stage.

But at 2 a.m. last Friday, Villamor died while at the intensive care unit of the said hospital. Pagar said the doctors reportedly told them that her cancer was very rare and that it spread rapidly. 

“After ani (mourning), mo-seek gyud ko’g justice. I already warned them (the doctors)… I want to know if they were doing everything to save her,” he said.

Villamor served as Tungkop barangay chief for two terms. When she sought for a third term in 2010, she lost.

She also ran for a town councilor in May 2010, yet also failed. She again tried to make a comeback last year, seeking the barangay chief post, but was defeated.

Before her death, she was a faculty member of UV-Minglanilla.

Villamor’s remains are in the family’s residence in Barangay Tungkop. She will be cremated on Tuesday.  (FREEMAN)