By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Barely three months after assuming the post, Negros Oriental Governor Jorge Carlo Joan “Guido” Reyes passed away yesterday morning.

Negros Oriental provincial administrator Atty. Karen Molas confirmed that Reyes succumbed to a terminal illness while being treated at St. Luke’s Hospital.

The governor has been battling a terminal illness even before he assumed the post last March following the assassination of governor Roel Degamo.

Reyes was elected vice governor during the national elections last year, where he ran in tandem with Degamo.

Meanwhile, Vice Governor Manuel “Chaco” Sagarbarria immediately took his oath as new Negros Oriental governor yesterday, before provincial executive judge Gerardo Paguio at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan session hall at the Legislative Building in Dumaguete City.

Provincial director Farah Gentuya of the Department of the Interior and Local Government in Negros Oriental said board member Jake Reyes would become the next vice governor, replacing Sagarbarria, under the rules of succession.

Two vacancies on the provincial board will have to be filled up by the political parties of Sagarbarria and Reyes, she said./With reports from PNA / DGB, WDJ