CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 15 December) – Journalist and Palanca award-winning poet Lina Sagaral Reyes passed away in a government hospital here Saturday afternoon. She was 63.
Known for her poetry and fearless reporting, Reyes, born and raised in Bohol but Mindanao-Based since the 1990s, was admitted to the Northern Mindanao Medical Center here two days after complaining of chest pains, erratic blood sugar count and fever.
Living alone in Barangay Lumbia in this city, Reyes called for an ambulance to rush her to the hospital.
Friends from the Cagayan de Oro Press Club (COPC), where she served as a director of its Journalism Institute, took turns in giving her aid at the hospital.
On Saturday morning, Lina’s health improved and she even posted that she was excited to attend the COPC Christmas party on December 27.
“Am definitely feeling better. O2 saturation now 93. BP 100/80,” Lina posted in her Facebook account.
Doctors at the NMMC hospital said Lina suffered heart attack at 2 p.m. Saturday and died at 5 p.m.
In its statement, the COPC said they are deeply saddened by the passing of a dear colleague and friend.
“She was an invaluable member to the local media community,” the statement said.
Reyes was awarded the Investigative/Exploratory Story of the Year in the Globe Media Excellence Awards in 2016, and the Xavier University’s Lambago Art Awards in 2016 and 2018.
Reyes won first prize for Poetry in the Palanca Awards in 1987 for (Instead of a Will These) For All the Loved Ones and was a co-winner for third prize in the same category in 1990 for Istorya, with Ma. Luisa B. Aguilar-Cariño and J Neil Garcia.
Before she was rushed to the hospital, Reyes was working on behalf of the COPC for a million-peso grant from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.
She started her journalism career at the Dipolog-based weekly Press Freedom whose owner Ferdinand Reyes was killed in 1996.
Later, Lina was hired as a senior reporter of Sunstar Cagayan de Oro in this city. She also worked as correspondent of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and other national news publications.
Reyes took courses in Journalism and Creative Writing at the Silliman University between 1978 and 1983, and got her undergraduate diploma in Communication from Liceo de Cagayan University in 2016.
Maria Yvette Reyes, her sister, said the wake for Lina will be from December 15 to 17 at the St. Peter Memorial Chapel in Barangay Iponan.
She said Lina’s remains will be cremated on Tuesday and her ashes will be brought to Manila.
Memorial services will be held in her hometown in Bohol and Manila. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)
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