Former Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali died on Thursday after the COVID-19 disease made his liver ailment worse. He was 63.
Reynaldo, who had been suffering from late-stage liver cancer, was later stricken by COVID-19, his brother Rep. Alfonso Umali Jr. said.
Malacañang offered condolences to Reynaldo’s family and colleagues.
“We extend our condolences to the family and colleagues of former Oriental Mindoro Congressman Reynaldo Umali,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque told reporters.
Umali Jr. said on radio that his brother suffered a heart failure before he died in a hospital in Makati City.
Reynaldo had a medical checkup that revealed he had a fatty liver, but follow-up checkups had to be put on hold because of the Covid-19 pandemic, his brother said.
Alfonso said that when Rey finally had another checkup on Dec. 12, he tested positive for COVID-19 and was found to have Stage-3 liver cancer.
“Then, after a few days, his condition was aggravated and the cancer had moved to Stage 4,” Alfonso said.
He said Reynaldo was admitted to the intensive care unit on Dec. 21, and was intubated on Dec. 26.
On Wednesday, the tests revealed bacterial infection in Reynaldo’s liver.
“This morning his blood pressure plummeted and then he suffered a heart failure,” Alfonso said.
During his last term in the House of Representatives, Reynaldo was chairman of the House Committee on Justice, which conducted the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno in 2017, as well as the investigation of the alleged involvement of Senator Leila de Lima in illegal drugs in 2016.