Lapu-Lapu City’s top councilor Eugene Espedido passes away at 74

CEBU, Philipines – Lapu-Lapu City councilor and lawyer Eugene Espedido passed away on Tuesday, August 15, at the age of 74.

His daughter, Genilda Espedido, said in a phone interview on Wednesday that her father was supposedly brought to a hospital due to health complications but later succumbed to a severe heart attack.

“Nahospitalize gyud siya and he had an emergency angioplasty, a few hours after, wala na nakaya (He was hospitalized and he had an emergency angioplasty, a few hours after, he couldn’t take it anymore),” the daughter said.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday morning, Genilda made the announcement of her father’s death.

Other family members, officials, and residents of Lapu-Lapu City took to social media to express their condolences and grief over the councilor’s passing.

Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Junard “Ahong” Chan said in a social media post how painful it was to lose a fellow Oponganon and how both the councilor and mayor still had plenty of plans for the city together.

“Daghan kaayung salamat Atty. Eugene sa imong pagka-maayu nga public servant o alagad sa mga katawhan. Imo gayud gihalad ang imong kaugalingon aron sa pag-abag kanako sa paghatod sa tinuoray ug kinasingkasing nga serbisyo para sa mga Oponganon,” Chan said.

(Thank you so much Atty. Eugene for being a great public servant of the people. You gave yourself to help me deliver truthful and wholesome service to the Oponganons)

The mayor vowed to support the late lawyer’s family through this difficult time.

Advocate and leader

Even before he became a city official, Espedido was known not just to his family, but to the citizens of Lapu-Lapu City, as an advocate of quality education.

From 1986 to 1989, he was the president of the St. Alphonsus Catholic School (SACS) Alumni Association in Lapu-Lapu City.

“He was the one who revived the association and made it active and dynamic. Since then, he was always with the association guiding the officers,” SACS wrote in its Facebook post.

Espedido served as a member of the SACS’s board of trustees from 1998 to 2010 and after winning the top councilor seat in the 2022 election, Espedido went on to become the city council’s majority floor leader and the chairman of the education committee.

Espedido was also a former president of the Lapu-Lapu City College and a law professor at the University of San Carlos.

According to his daughter, he spent most of his time authoring resolutions to support the youth and their education.

Loving father

For the late lawyer’s daughter, Espedido was a devoted father and provider, most especially to his grandchildren.

“Every day, we go together, his time for his family never went away even when he became a councilor. Sunday is really family time, and we would go to church and have dinner,” Genilda said.

She recalled how her father prioritized her 16th birthday instead of attending an event organized by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP).

Genilda said that no matter how busy the lawyer was, especially when it came to official work, he would always choose to put his family first.

Espendido’s remains are at the Cebu Rolling Hills Memorial Chapels, along A.S. Fortuna Street in Mandaue City.

On Sunday, August 20, the official’s wake will be transferred to the Lapu-Lapu City Hall, and on Monday, August 21, a mass will be held at around 1 pm at the Birhen Sa Regla Chapel in Lapu-Lapu City.

The mass will be celebrated with Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma. The councilor’s body will be laid to rest at the Mactan Island Memorial Garden in Barangay Marigondon, Lapu-Lapu City. – Rappler.com