By Leslie Ann G. Aquino Retired Batanes Bishop Camilo Gregorio died of cardiac arrest Monday, May 21, at the age of 78. Fr. Deo Layug, Batanes prelature’s Vicar General, said Gregorio has been at the Cardinal Santos Hospital in San Juan City due to pneumonia since May 9. The priest said that Gregorio also suffered a mild stroke last Thursday while he was under dialysis treatment. According to a CBCP News post, the Batanes prelate is the fourth prelate to die this year after Bishop Jose Oliveros of Malolos who succumbed to prostate cancer on May 11. Like Oliveros, his last major public appearance was during the ordination of Msgr. Bartolome Santos Jr, as a bishop at the Malolos Cathedral on April 30. Gregorio was ordained priest for the Diocese of San Jose in Nueva Ecija in 1963 after he finished his theology studies at the University of Santo Tomas. He also has a doctorate in theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas in Rome and a master’s degree in educational administration at Fordham University in New York. Upon his return to the Philippines, Gregorio was named rector of the Maria Assumpta Seminary in Cabanatuan from 1971 to 1974. He also became assistant secretary in the Apostolic Nunciature, the papal embassy in Manila, in 1984. In 1987, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Cebu. Two yeas later, he became the bishop of Bacolod. In 2003, the Vatican appointed him as head of the Batanes prelature. Gregorio was the fourth prelate of Batanes which he served for almost 14 years until he retired in May 2017.