And with Toledo East currently without an area rep, the government has 90 days to host a bi-election. But they're in no rush - the PM says he'll wait until after Espat is buried.
But who will replace him as the new PUP standard bearer? The Prime Minister's own CEO, Dr Osmond Martinez, has expressed interest, but so has Espat's son, Melhem Espat.
In the case of David Vega, who passed away from COVID before he was even sworn in, his sister took the mantle. So will PUP choose to keep it in the family again, or offer the position to Dr Martinez?
Here's what the PM told us:
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Let me start off by saying that it would be difficult to replace Mike Espat, Mike Espat was larger than life but with that said, I don't think that we should be discussing that at this moment. Right now, we need to recognize the tremendous work and life of service of Mike Espat, we should respect the mourning period of the family, we have time to deal with all of that and as a party we will deal with that after we have put him in his resting place which will be in PG I'm told, next week Wednesday."
Courtney Menzies:
"And in this case the government plans a state funeral, right?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"The government is planning I think it's an unofficial funeral, I'm told that only heads of state and the Governor General gets state funerals, be it present or retire heads of state. All officials get, or members of the House, would get an official funeral but I think that Mike might be the only one that has died in office. We've had others that died but they already retired so he died in office but we are going to give him a proper sendoff that he deserves."
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