ILOILO City – Fashion designer and longtime Miss Iloilo Dinagyang lead organizer Alex G. Soncio died last night.
Soncio suffered from complications of pneumonia, a close friend who has spoken with the family told Panay News. He died at St. Paul’s Hospital Iloilo on General Luna Street at 8:55 p.m.
As Miss Dinagyang event chairman for seven years – he announced this January he was quitting the post – Soncio believed the main purpose of the pageant was to promote tourism and bolster the economy of this city.
“The event shows how colorful and artistic our culture can be,” he said during remarks at the pageant’s Costume Competition at the Iloilo Business Park Festive Walk on Jan. 6.
“The evening,” he said at the time, “will highlight our festivity, our tradition, our history, and the creativity of the Ilonggos.”
“Rest in peace, Tito Alex Gonzales Soncio,” fellow fashion designer Jet Salcedo wrote in a Facebook post, among others who expressed grief on social media Monday night in light of the news of Soncio’s death.
“Thank you for being one of the people who believed in me. You will remain an icon in the Ilonggo fashion industry,” Salcedo said.
Just this July Soncio was recognized by the University of San Agustin as one of its 13 outstanding alumni, specifically in the field of local fashion.
He was given a bronze cast statuette of St. Augustine the Scholar during a ceremony recognizing Augustinian alumni achievers as the university celebrated 65 years as the first institution of higher learning in Western Visayas.
“Complication daw sa pneumonia pero before that inatake siya sa puso,” Soncio’s close friend and model Edgar “EJ” Cenar of Roxas City, Capiz told Panay News after learning about the death via a phone call from the designer’s family.
According to Cenar, he learned that Soncio was admitted in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit for two weeks because of a heart attack.
Salcedo, a close friend of Soncio, also told Panay News via Facebook Messenger, “I think daw two weeks na sia sa ICU.” (Ian Paul Cordero and Daryl Lasafin/PN)
