Floro Mercene, 93

VETERAN JOURNALIST and columnist Floro L. Mercene died of heart failure on Wednesday, August 7. He was 93.

Mercene wrote a column for the Manila Bulletin.

He started as a reporter for the defunct Philippine News Service. His beat, the Bulletin reported, included the old Balagbag Airport and meeting and interviewing visiting Hollywood stars and celebrities.

He was the Department of Tourism’s spokesman until 1986, after which he spent the next years traveling, researching and interviewing descendants of the first settlers. He authored the book “Manila Men in the New World, the Filipino migration to Mexico and the Americas in the sixteenth century” which was published in 2007.

He is survived by his brothers Recto and Dante; wife Felisa; sons Ovid and Maro; daughters Fleurdeliz San Pedro and Jasmine Eugenio; his grandchildren and great grandchildren.