FORMER senator Heherson “Sonny” Alvarez died on Monday weeks after he was infected with COVID-19, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said.
Alvarez, who also served as environment secretary, was 80.
Alvarez and his wife Cecile Guidote-Alvarez were infected with COVID-19 last month, based on social media posts of their children, Xilca Alvarez-Protacio and Hexilon Guidote Alvarez.
The Alvarez siblings earlier this month said their parents were transferred to the intensive care unit of an undisclosed hospital where they were intubated due to difficulty in breathing.
Cecile’s condition is reportedly improving.
The former senator was reported to have undergone an experimental plasma treatment last week.
Alvarez, a staunch critic of the late President Ferdinand Marcos, was appointed secretary of agrarian reform by former President Corazon Aquino after the ouster of the dictator in February 1986. He helped the Aquino administration in crafting the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
Alvarez won a Senate seat in 1987 and served up to 1998, during which he focused on legislation about the environment. He chaired the Senate committee on environment for 10 years.
After his stint at the Senate, Alvarez ran and won as representative of the fourth district of his home province Isabela, from 1998 to 2001.
He was appointed as secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources by former President Gloria Arroyo.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III said the Senate mourns Alvarez’ death.
“I feel more pain with his loss as I and the rest of my colleagues in the Senate and our counterparts at the House of Representatives cannot even give him the proper recognition and reverence due a former member of Congress given that his passing comes during this time when the country is gripped by this infectious, fatal virus,” Sotto said.
“His legacy will live in our hearts and minds of the people and his name will forever be etched in our country’s rich history,” he added.
Senate president pro tempore Ralph Recto described Alvarez as someone with “a soft heart for the common tao (people) and spent a lifetime championing their rights and freedoms, and at one time paying dearly for the courage of his convictions.”
“He was no longer a politician with the next election in mind, but a statesman concerned about the next generation,” Recto said.
Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo mourned Alvarez’ passing.
“I join his legion of friends in expressing my family’s condolences to his family, relatives and all his loved ones,” he said.
Panelo said friendship with Alvarez “dates back to my days in the University of the Philippines, which further deepened during the years of the Marcos presidency when we were together in the parliament of the streets. While we were in the opposite ideological sides during the Aquino years, such divide did not stain our personal friendship, which continued all these years till he succumbed to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) today.”
He described Alvarez a devoted public servant, having served both the legislative and executive branches of government.
“So was he a devoted family man to his wife and two children. His activism brought positive changes in public administration, most specially in the field of human rights. He was a passionate advocate of the environment,” Panelo said.
