The head of the Media Accreditation and Relations Office (Maro) under the Office of the Press Secretary died on Saturday while on duty in China.
A Palace statement said Henry Reveche was on an official mission to Shanghai when he suffered a heart attack. He was rushed to a hospital but was declared dead on arrival.
"Reveche was with a Malacañang team doing an ocular inspection of the Philippine Pavilion at the 2010 World Expo site in Shanghai, which President (Gloria Macapagal) Arroyo is scheduled to formally open on June 8," it said.
The statement said Reveche's part in the mission was to prepare Philippine media accreditation and arrangements for President Arroyo's visit.
A report in “24 Oras" said Reveche’s remains are still at a hospital in China. It said the processing of visas and passports for family members who will travel to Shanghai to claim his body is being fast-tracked.
A statement from the Office of the Press Secretary said Reveche had been in government service for 37 years, mostly spent with government communication entities. He started his government media career in 1973 as a public relations assistant and junior media strategist with then the National Media Production Center (NMPC), now Philippine Information Agency.
He rose to become PIA Senior Development Information Officer and a later as Special and Technical Assistant at the Office of the Press Secretary in Malacañang.
Reveche took over MARD, a unit of the News and Information Bureau, OPS, in 1998. Reveche completed a BA Philosophy course at the Mount Carmel Seminary and BA in Sacred Theology at the University of Sto. Tomas.
He earned a Master's degree in National Security Administration (MNSA) at the National Defense College of the Philippines with which he was inducted as Reserved Officer in the Armed Forces of the Philippines with the rank of Commander in the Philippine Navy.
Reveche is survived by wife Marilou and children: Jean, Bam and Pyn. Burial arrangements will be announced later once his remains arrive from China. - with Jerrie Abella/KBK,
