Vicente Camacho dies at 50

Former Retirement Fund administrator and Summer Holiday Suites owner Vicente C. Camacho died yesterday afternoon, almost a month after he fell into a coma due to a massive stroke.

Camacho, 50, was surrounded by his family and friends when he expired at about 2pm at the Commonwealth Health Center, where he had been confined since May 18.

A daily Mass will be held at the Kristo Rai Church in Garapan every 6am. A nightly rosary was also started last night and will be said every 7pm until the evening before the funeral, which is tentatively scheduled for June 23.

Tom Camacho, one of the late businessman’s seven siblings, said all of Camacho’s family members have been notified of the death.

He said that Camacho’s son Brandon is now on his way from Iraq, where he is currently assigned as a U.S. military member. Brandon’s brother Ryan and sister Ila were both with their father at the time of the latter’s death.

Former governor Froilan Tenorio said he would always be grateful to Camacho for agreeing to be his running mate in the 2005 gubernatorial elections. Camacho was seeking election as lieutenant governor under the Democratic Party when he suffered a stroke on May 18.

Tenorio said he knew Camacho not only as a cheerful uncle, but also as a good businessman and politician. “He was a very nice person. He would have made a very good lieutenant governor,” he said.

Charles Reyes Sr., who served as a Retirement Fund trustee at the same time as Camacho, said he never had any serious argument with Camacho in the six years that they had been close friends.

“He’s more than just a brother to me. I was there standing beside him when he died, but I still can’t believe he’s gone. It’s very hard to lose a good friend,” Reyes said.

For his part, Reyes’ son and House leadership spokesman Charles Reyes Jr. remembered Camacho for his sense of humor.

“In my interaction with [Camacho] over several years, I couldn’t remember a time that he was not smiling or sharing jokes. He would even send jokes through email. He was very cheerful and had a positive attitude,” he said.

He also recalled that Camacho was starting to become health conscious before he had the stroke last month. “That’s why it was a shock to find out about what happened,” Reyes Jr. said.

Camacho was a businessman with over 20 years of experience. He was the proprietor of Summer Holiday Suites in Saipan and the former president and general manager of Metropolitan Builders.

He had also held various positions in government. He was formerly chair of the Workers’ Compensation Commission and Group Health Life Insurance Program of the NMI Retirement Fund, and the Prior Service Trust Fund.

Camacho was very active in community service and has chaired a number of organizations and programs including NMI Crime Stoppers, Karidat and the Protection and Advocacy for the Mentally Ill.

In December 2004, he was elected to the board of the NMI Council for the Humanities.