Ex-Oriental Mindoro congressman Reynaldo Umali dies

Former Oriental Mindoro congressman Reynaldo “Rey” Umali died on Thursday, January 7. He was 63.

Oriental Mindoro 2nd District Representative Alfonso Umali Jr confirmed in a DZBB interview on Thursday that his brother died of cardiac arrest that morning, but the former congressman also had late-stage liver cancer and had a bout with COVID-19.

Umali said his brother had a medical checkup before, which revealed that he had fatty liver, but follow-up checkups had to be put on hold because of the pandemic.

Umali said that when Rey finally had another checkup on December 12, he tested positive for COVID-19, and was found to have Stage 3 liver cancer.

“Noong December 12, nagpa-checkup siya, doon nakita na may COVID na siya. Tapos nakita na may Stage 3 cancer siya. Tapos ilang days lang na-aggravate naging Stage 4 liver cancer,” Umali said.

(He had a checkup on December 12, and that’s when he tested positive for COVID. It was also discovered that he had Stage 3 cancer. Then after a few days, his condition was aggravated, and he had Stage 4 liver cancer.)

He said the former congressman was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) on December 21, and was intubated on December 26. 

“Kahapon, nakakakita ng bacteria sa kanyang liver. Ngayong umaga, bumaba na ang dugo niya tapos nag-cardiac arrest kaninang umaga,” he added.

(Bacteria was detected in his liver yesterday. This morning, his blood [pressure] dropped then he went into cardiac arrest.)

After his third term as Oriental Mindoro 2nd District representative, Umali ran for Oriental Mindoro governor in the May 2019 elections but lost.

During his last term in Congress, he was chairman of the House committee on justice. He led the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno in 2017, as well as the House probe into the alleged drug links of Senator Leila de Lima in 2016. – Rappler.com