CEBU CITY – Remains of the late Press Secretary Cerge Remonde, 51, is expected to arrive here Friday and will be brought immediately to Malacañang sa Sugbo (MSS).

According to Paul Hubahib from the Office of the Press Secretary, Remonde’s remains will arrive at the Mactan Cebu International Airport around noon, or early afternoon. The late Press Secretary will lie in state overnight at the MISS where mourners are welcome to pay their final respects and attend necrological services to be held at 2 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 9 in the evening.

Earlier, the Office of the Press Secretary sponsored a mass celebrated by Monsignor Achilles Dakay, Media Liaison Officer of the Archdiocese at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral. Monsignor Dakay remembered Remonde as a “man of faith, hope and charity.”

A mass was also offered for the late Press Secretary by Mayor Tomas Osmeña at the Basilica del Sto. Niño. A devotee of the Holy Child, Remonde was last seen here attending church activities including the procession and fluvial parade during the grand Sinulog celebration.

According to Argao Tourism Chief, Ted Villarino, a contingent led by Mayor Edcel Galeos will be at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport when Remonde’s remains arrive at noon Friday. On Saturday, Remonde’s remains will be brought by a motorcade departing at 1 p.m. from the MISS to Argao, his hometown, in the southern part of Cebu.

Argao’s local officials are coordinating with Malacanang in planning special honors for the arrival of Remonde’s remains tomorrow, Saturday.

The wake in Argao will be held at the Diosdado Macapagal Sports and Cultural Center whose construction had been initiated by the late Press Secretary. His remains will be interred at the family mausoleum in the town public cemetery on Sunday.

Meanwhile, administration Presidential bet Gilberto Teodoro, who was in Argao last Wednesday described Remonde and the latter’s wife, Marit, as “very close friends.”

Teodoro, during a press conference, chuckled as he recalled that he and Remonde were the only cigarette smokers in the Cabinet.

The locals’ grief over Remonde’s passing was palpable. Four flags in the main plaza flew at half mast and inside Argao’s centuries-old Saint Michael’s Church was a large portrait of Remonde’s by the side of the altar.

Meanwhile, in an official communiqué, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao’s acting Regional Governor Ansaruddin Alonto-Adiong expressed the regional leadership and constitutents’ “heartfelt condolences and deepest sympathy” to Remonde’s bereaved family and relatives.

He described the late Press Secretary as a “great loss” to the administration even as he credited him for the “valuable concern and assistance he has extended to the ARMM regional officialdom.”

In his communique, which he sent to Remonde’s family, through Malacanang, Adiong said Sec. Remonde’s “untimely death is a great loss not only to this administration but more significantly to the people who in one way or the other have been provided by him with valuable assistance during his tenure as a public official, including us from the ARMM.” (with reports from Mars W. Mosqueda and Nonoy E. Lacson)