MANILA, Philippines?After the "Hello Garci'' election fraud scandal rocked the Arroyo administration, then Secretary Cerge Remonde "lost illusions'' but never thought of quitting the Cabinet, according to his widow.

At Thursday night's necrological services for the late press secretary in Malacañang, Marit Stinus Remonde shared snippets of her husband's life especially at the height of the scandal.

"I remember in August 2005, maybe six weeks or two months after the Garci tape scandal broke out. It was made into a crisis for government. And Cerge was really challenged that month,'' she said.

The scandal set off charges that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo phoned then election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano to rig results of the 2004 presidential elections in her favor.

Weeks after the scandal broke out, Marit and her husband, then head of the Government Mass Media Group, had a private dinner in Bacolod City, and he unburdened himself.

"That's when he shared with me that the past weeks' experience had made him lose all his illusions. He believed in a lot of sayings until then. I will not be specific about the institutions and personalities that he mentioned. He had lost some idealism about many things. I said it's good to be free of illusions after all they're just illusions,'' she said in her response to eulogies for her husband at the packed Heroes' Hall.

As the crisis swirled, with 10 Cabinet officials quitting their posts and several sectors calling for Ms Arroyo's resignation, Marit said she received a package of Remonde's belongings at their Cebu home.

"I received a big box in the house from Cerge with many of his things, and I thought, `This was it, he was gonna quit also.' Of course I was worried about him there in Malacañang. But when I asked him, `Are you coming home? He said `No, I'm just sending some of the many things to Cebu','' she said.

"Never, never did he think of quitting. He was very loyal to the President. When he had doubts in his mind, he would think of the alternatives. He said there's no one better than the President, and Cerge and I agreed on that. That was a major reason why we stayed together. Had we lived in Denmark this apart, we would have been divorced a long time ago, but we stayed together,'' she added.

Remonde died of a heart attack last Tuesday at the age of 51. He and Marit had been married since 1994. But since accepting a government post in January 2001, Remonde stayed most of the time in Manila, only flying home to Cebu on weekends to be with his wife.

His remains were flown to Cebu Friday morning for interment in his hometown Argao on Sunday.

Marit, who writes a column for the Manila Times, recalled that she and Remonde had strong reservations to the offer to serve as Press Secretary in February 2009, but he accepted it just the same.

"When Cerge moved from the PMS (Presidential Management Staff) to the Office of the President, we both knew it would be a very tough job. Both of us were not very much in favor of it.... He told me he had to accept the position and he explained to me why he could not say no any longer, and I understood his reasons,'' she said.

But despite his hectic schedule and the pressures of his job, Remonde got hooked on Facebook, uploading photos, chatting with friends.

"He had great fun doing that. Sometime last Christmas, I received finally an invitation from him to be his friend in Facebook,'' Marit said, drawing laughter from the audience. "I was very proud of him, and I'm very proud of Cerge.''

On Friday morning, she said she had "no regrets'' about his decision to join the government.

"The decision we made nine years ago to accept that offer to become press undersecretary... was a lot of sacrifice over the years. I still believe it was worth it,'' she told reporters in Malacañang before Remonde's remains were transported to the Villamor Air Base for the flight to Cebu.

Then she added: "I just really wish that we would have some more good years because he was looking forward to a more normal life, without pressures and more time to play golf, and be with friends and sing and he was even joking to his friends that he was looking forward to be opposition so that he could really freely and truly express opinion openly without considering that he was just not speaking for himself, but speaking for the President and the entire government.''

With Anna Lam and Alycia Gawthorne, Inquirer interns