Rico Blanco's younger brother Rey 'King' Blanco dies
The younger brother of OPM icon Rico Blanco has died, his bandmate and his niece confirmed on social media.
Rivermaya drummer Mark Escueta, in an Instagram post on May 15, shared a poster saying that Rey Estanislao Blanco, or "Kuya King" as he's fondly called, died on May 14. Born on Aug. 19, 1974, he was about three months shy of his 51st birthday.
The poster states the viewing is at Heaven's Park in Biñan, Laguna (formerly Arlington), and the interment will be on May 20 at Everest Hills Memorial Park in Muntinlupa, shortly after the funeral mass at Heaven's Park at 1 p.m.
"Paalam, kapatid," Escueta wrote in the caption with a folded hands emoji.
Rico's niece, Daniela Blanco, shared the same poster on Facebook about an hour later.
"Our daddy King has peacefully joined our Creator," Daniela wrote in the caption.
"We love you always and forever, dad. Like you always say: 'Thank you, love you,'" she added.
Last Jan. 23, Rico, in a lengthy Instagram post, paid tribute to King, sharing their throwback photos.
"This beautiful boy you see with me is my younger brother, King. Only a year apart, we did everything together growing up, like best friends, or even twins. We shared so many adventures and fought so many battles alongside each other. I love him so very dearly," Rico said.
"A few weeks ago, we received the terrible news that he has cancer," he continued. "The signs all came too rapidly and seemingly out of nowhere, and by the time we got the full diagnosis, we were told he already has an advanced and very aggressive type of squamous cell carcinoma (sinus)."
At the time, Rico said King's treatment began the day before. He also asked his followers to "pray for King’s strength and healing."
"Only heaven really knows what's best for my dear brother, but we are keeping our hopes up. I cannot bear to imagine a world without him in it," he said. "This is our toughest battle. Please, please help us win."
Rico has yet to write a new post about King.
