Bishop Ronald “Bong” Lunas of Pagadian was remembered as a “holy man for others” at his funeral Mass Thursday in a packed Santo Niño Cathedral.

Archbishop Martin Jumoad of Ozamis served as the presider and homilist at the liturgy that drew droves of prelates, public officials, priests, consecrated persons and lay faithful.

He described the late bishop as “simple, down to earth, always available and ready to serve”.

“Bp. Lunas has a happy disposition and I have never seen him to be angry,” said Jumoad, who was recently appointed apostolic administrator of Pagadian.

The archbishop even went so far as to float the idea that his former seminary student could be a candidate for sainthood because of the way he lived his life and cared for others.

“It is possible Bishop Lunas can be a candidate for sainthood,” Jumoad said.

Lunas, aged 57, passed away on January 2 due to complications from heart bypass at a government hospital in Davao City.

He served Pagadian diocese in the province of Zamboanga del Sur, his first assignment as a bishop, for nearly five years.

The Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) described him as a “young and promising bishop” whose death is not only a loss for the Church in the Philippines but “for the Church in Asia too”.

After the Mass, Lunas was laid to rest beside the cathedral.