MANILA – Former Transportation and Communication secretary Josefina Lichauco passed away at 5:20 Sunday after a stroke last week, a radio report said.

Lichauco died at the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig without recovering from a coma following a stroke in Hong Kong last Janaury 31. She was flown to Manila Wednesday.

Lichauco, an opposition stalwart, served as secretary of the transportation department from 1979-2000. She was also a former chairman of the National Telecommunications Commission (1989-1991) and a regular columnist for broadsheet Philippine Star.

A 6 p.m. mass will be celebrated Sunday at the Sanctuario de San Antonio in Forbes Park, Makati, said Bayan Muna Secretary-General Renato Reyes in his blog “Like A Rolling Stone." Lichauco was Reyes’ godmother at his wedding and a “long-time friend of Bayan." (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)