P-Noy to visit Sanchez’s wake tomorrow

PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III will be in Cebu tomorrow, May 5, to pay his respects to the late Vice Gov. Gregorio Sanchez, Jr. and condole with his grieving family.

Sanchez, whose remains lie in state at the Crystal Palace in Lahug, Cebu City, succumbed to lung cancer last Friday.

Midday yesterday, members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) arrived at the mortuary looking for Grecilda “Gigi” Zaballero, Sanchez’s daughter.

Cols. William Alonday and Rex Resureccion of the PSG told Zaballero that the President will visit.

Sanchez is a local stalwart of the Liberal Party (LP), under which Aquino won the 2010 presidential race.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Ngo Laban of the Presidential Management Staff in Cebu told Cebu Daily News that tomorrow, President Aquino is also set to visit the wake of another political ally, Calbayog City Mayor Reynaldo Uy.

Uy was shot to death last Sunday in a town in Samar by a still-unidentified gunman.

Ngo Laban said Malacañang is still finalizing the Chief Executive’s out-of-town trips to Cebu and Samar.

In a talk with CDN, Zaballero said she received feedback that the President will visit the wake of his father through local LP stalwarts Hilario “Junjun” Davide III and Cebu City South District Rep. Tomas “Tommy” Osmeña.

Zaballero said her family had waited for the President to visit the ailing Sanchez during his confinement at the Cardinal Santos Hospital in Manila last March, but Aquino was unable to make it.

Sources in the Sanchez family said interment will be on May 7 at the Mactan Island Memorial Garden in barangay Marigondon, Lapu-Lapu City.

Last night, Capitol beat reporters and members of Cebu media held a farewell fellowship in honor of the late vice governor.

Sanchez is the first Cebu vice governor to die in office.