Former GMA News senior cameraman, video chief Ricardo Villegas passes away at 90

Former GMA News senior cameraman and head of videography Ricardo Pagkalinawan Villegas has passed away at the age of 90.

In a message to GMA News Online, former GMA News & Public Affairs administrative division AVP Kelly Vergel de Dios said that Villegas died on Thursday of complications from pneumonia.

His passing was confirmed by his daughter Evita Villegas Dela Cruz.

Villegas was Jessica Soho's cameraman when she was a news reporter. On the military-defense beat for GMA Network, Villegas also covered important historical events including the People Power Revolution, as well as the coup attempts during Corazon Aquino's presidency.

"He was GMA's eyes on the ground during the Camp Cawa-Cawa siege of 1989," Vergel De Dios said, adding that Villegas also covered the surrender of dissident Colonel Alexander Noble and the 1990 Hotel Delfino siege in Tuguegarao that killed Brigadier General Oscar Florendo.

Ricardo Villegas and his wife, Rosalia Pilare Villegas. 

As a father and grandfather, said Evita, Villegas was "Not perfect but THE BEST! Can’t ask for more."

Villegas was married to the former Rosalia Moster Pilare, who passed away in 2021. They are survived by four children—Eric, Evita, Edgie and Ederick—and 14 grandchildren. Edgie and Ederick also became news videographers like their father. — BM, GMA Integrated News