Manila: Congressman Salvador Escudero, 69, a respected academician and former agriculture secretary who served two presidents, died in his sleep early Monday, following two years of battling colon cancer, his son Senator Francis Escudero said.
“He passed away in his sleep at 3.30am [Monday]. He has been suffering and fighting colon cancer for a little over two years,” Sen. Escudero said.
The former representative of Sorsogon in Bicol, southern Luzon, was agriculture secretary of former President Fidel Ramos, from 1992 to 1998.
When he was younger, he was Minister of Food and Agriculture, during the last years of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, from 1984 to 1986.
Before that, he was also Marco’s director of Bureau of Animal Industry, from 1975 to 1984.
Escudero was a respected academician and served as dean and professor of the College of Veterinary Medicine at the premier University of the Philippines in southern Luzon’s Los Baños, from 1970 until 1984. Prior to that, he was director of the UP Veterinary Hospital from 1968 to 1969.
At three in the afternoon, political allies joined the Escudero family at the start of the wake at Mt. Carmel Church in New Manila, suburban Quezon City.
