Rep. Serapio of Valenzuela killed in car-bus collision

(Update 3) Valenzuela Rep. Antonio M. Serapio died Monday afternoon in a car accident while on his way to the House of Representatives to attend a two-day special session. The possibility that Serapio might have suffered a heart attack before noon Monday while driving his Honda CRV on his way back to Manila was raised when witnesses said that they saw the CRV moving in a zig-zag manner while cruising along the Olongapo-Gapan road. However, talk also had it that the congressman suffered the heart attack when he was already in the hospital. Investigators are still trying to determine the facts in the case. Serapio, 69, was a member of the Nacionalista Party, and represented the second district of Valenzuela City. Born on June 13, 1937, Serapio was one of the six opposition lawmakers who had refused to sign the impeachment complaints against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2005 and 2006. He did not sign the complaint because he did not believe that Arroyo is a legitimate president and therefore was illegible for impeachment. A lawyer by profession, he is survived by his wife Marissa. Investigators said Serapio was driving his CRV car near the boundary of Sta. Rita, Pampanga, and Concepcion, Tarlac, on the Gapan-Olongapo Road, at about 10 am Monday, when the accident happened. They said the car was moving in zig-zag manner when it swerved to the other lane and rammed into a Sierra Madre Transit, a bus plying the Caloocan-San Isidro (Nueva Ecija) route. Ronnie Santiago, a driver of the same bus company but not of the bumped passenger vehicle, confirmed the vehicular accident, and revealed that the four-door sedan of the lawmaker was a “total wreck." He said the accident occurred along the highway of Barangay Sta. Rita in Cabiao town in Nueva Ecija province. The collision damaged the front part of the CRV car. Serapio was rushed to the Nueva Ecija Doctors Hospital but was later declared dead at the intensive care unit, Serapio is a member of the House committees on Reforestation, Veterans Affairs and Welfare, Rules, Games and Amusement and Revision of Laws. Officials in the House of Representatives said Serapio served for three terms during the time of the late Speaker Ramon Mitra Jr. He was also a former regional trial court judge in his hometown Valenzuela before he joined Congress. Speaker Jose de Venecia announced Serapio's demise at past five in the afternoon, more than an hour after the chamber convened its session. “Let us have a few minutes of silent prayer for our fallen colleague. This is a moment of sadness for us, where our colleague, Antonio Serapio, met a fatal vehicular accident and has just passed away," he said. “He served Valenzuela and this nation well," said de Venecia, and “suspended" the session for a few minutes to pray for Serapio’s soul. The Speaker then instructed House secretary general Roberto Nazareno to inform House members of the scheduled necrological services for Serapio. - GMANews.TV