Singer Joey Bautista’s death due to COVID-19, says wife

Singer Joey Bautista. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The cause of death of Joey Bautista, lead singer of classic pop-rock band Mulatto, was coronavirus disease (COVID-19), his wife Belinda Bagatsing confirmed in a post March 20 on her Facebook page.

Bautista was cremated March 19, immediately following his death on the same day, sources told Inquirer.

A conversation Bautista had on Facebook Messenger with one of his friends revealed that he was suffering from “a severe case of pneumonia,” and that he was “not out of the woods yet.”

Sources said that Bautista managed to perform with Mulatto on March 11, in Albay, Bicol province, even as he was nursing a fever.

But Bagatsing belied it in her Facebook post.

“I knew was that he was a diabetic and he suffered a mild stroke sometime last year. Recently I heard he was a Person Under Monitoring (PUM) for COVID-19,” said TV director and former Mulatto manager Bert de Leon.

Bagatsing requested everyone who had been around her and Bautista in the last 30 days to monitor themselves and have a checkup if they don’t feel well.

“I have no symptoms and under quarantine for 21 days,” she said.

Edited by JPV