Renato Lumawag, 74

PHOTOJOURNALIST RENATO “Rene” B. Lumawag died on July 1 due to acute respiratory failure after a long battle with prostate cancer. He was 74.

He was the photo correspondent of the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Mindanao bureau in the 1990s, but was best known for documenting now President Rodrigo Duterte’s rise in politics from 1986 to the present. In 2016, he joined the government’s Presidential Photographers Division to document Duterte.

Lumawag, known to colleagues as “Tatay Rene,” has chronicled major events in Mindanao as a photojournalist since 1985. His first stint as a photojournalist was his coverage of the landslide that struck a gold rush site in Diwalwal in Monkayo, which was then part of Davao del Norte, in 1985. His photos earned him both national and international recognition. His photos appeared in newspapers around the world with his byline under Reuters.

In the same year, Lumawag joined the San Pedro Express and stayed for about two months, before moving to Ang Peryodiko Dabaw which became SunStar Davao six years later. He was staff photographer for the paper until his retirement in August 2008. Two months after his retirement, he joined the Mindanao Times, Mindanao’s oldest community paper, as its lifestyle contributor and photo consultant.

Lumawag is survived by his wife Minerva, and their children Renee Belle, Melanie Ruth, April John and Tyron Kristoffer.