Cerge Remonde’s death, Jason Ivler’s dramatic capture, Kris Aquino’s breakup with James Yap

Just as the week is starting, a lot of big stories have unfolded and took the country by surprise — the “breakup” of Kris Aquino with husband James Yap over alleged girlfriend/basketball fan, the dramatic capture of road rage killer Jason Ivler, and the untimely death of Press Secretary Cerge Remonde.

Kris Aquino and James Yap “breakup”

Kris Aquino reportedly left James Yap and moved in with her sister, Pinky, as they try to salvage their rocky marriage because of the recent fiasco between Kris and James’ female fan.

The dramatic capture of Jason Ivler

Armed with a “baby armalite” and .45 caliber pistol tucked in his shorts, Jason Ivler shot it out with agents of the National Bureau of Investigation or NBI when they raided his mother’s house yesterday in Quezon City. Jason Ivler sustained two gunshot wounds which needed surgery to take out his spleen and parts of his big intestines. He also wounded two NBI agents in the process. His mother, Marlene Aguilar, sister of folk singer Freddie Aguilar, has earlier denied any knowledge of her son’s whereabouts up until the action-filled arrest. She has been charged with obstruction of justice and has posted bail for her temporary freedom. Jason is still in “guarded condition” according to reports. See the video at the upper right portion of this page.

Untimely death of Press Secretary Cerge Remonde

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s press secretary, Cerge Remonde, succumbed to cardiac arrest and was declared dead at 11:51am Tuesday. He was 51. “Cerge Remonde was brought at Makati Medical Center at 11:20 a.m. He was unconscious, not breathing. He expired at 11:51 a.m.,” said Doctor Eric Nubla of Makati Medical Center where Remonde was rushed to when he was discovered unconscious in his home in Makati. Cerge Remonde was recently hooked into Facebook. The day before he died, he posted this status message on Facebook:

In one of his status messages, he mentions that he “was a failure as a press secretary” for not improving the image of the president as Press Secretary after 10 months in office:

Update (Jan. 21): According to members of a forum, who are apparently from the U.S. Armed Forces, Jason Ivler’s rank in the U.S. Army is enlisted specialist with a pay grade of 4 or SPC/E4, one rank lower than a corporal. The forum member also mentions that Ivler might also be AWOL as his Army Knowledge Online or AKO account is still active. Another forum member said “this hothead is a disgrace to the uniform if he really is one.”

Tagged as: Cerge Remonde, death, James Yap, Jason Ivler, Kris Aquino, video