3rd priest in Cotabato City succumbs to COVID-19
COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Another priest here died from complications due to COVID-19, the third in just 36 hours.
Eliseo Mercado, Jr. of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, died Sunday afternoon at the Cotabato Regional Medical Center, a government COVID-19 treatment facility.
He was confined at the CRMC last May 8 after he tested positive for COVID-19.
His colleagues in the Oblate congregation, whose pontifical base is in Rome, said there were signs he would recover but his heart stopped beating Sunday afternoon.
Mercado had a lingering heart condition.
He also had a head injury due to an accident about five years ago and nearly died from blood clots around his brain that doctors removed via surgery.
Mercado, a known “pro-Moro priest,” was popular in Mindanao for having supported the crafting of the Sept. 2, 1996 peace pact between the government and the Moro National Liberation Front.
He also supported the peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front that paved the way for the setting up in 2019 of the MILF-led Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Two priests belonging to the Diocesan Clergy of Cotabato, Loreto Sanoy and Rex Bacero, died one after another Friday also due to COVID-19 complications.
Sanoy was assistant parish priest in Cotabato City’s Rosary Heights Parish.
Bacero was president of the Notre Dame of Salaman College in the seaside Lebak town in Sultan Kudarat.
They tested positive for coronavirus last week and, subsequently, got hospitalized for breathing problems, fever and body malaise.
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