MANILA, 29 March — Actor Rico Yan, a co-host of the popular television show Whattamen, died yesterday at age 26.
Officials and relatives of the young entertainer said Yan was found lifeless at about 6 a.m. in his room at the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan.
Rico Yan's elder brother Bobby said they were told that his younger brother may have died of bangungot, a still unexplained phenomenon said to be common among Southeast Asians.
"We are not ruling out foul play. But it's better to wait for the result of the autopsy," said Bobby Yan, who hosts The Global Filipino and Alas Singko Y Media, which are also shown on ABS-CBN television like Whattamen.
Yan was with Whattamen co-host Dominique Ochoa and some crew members in the resort reportedly on "location shooting."
The actor body was immediately brought to Puerto Princesa City, after which it was flown to Manila. It was then brought to the police Crime Laboratory in Camp Crame for autopsy and forensic analysis.
Yan last starred in the 2001 movie Got to Believe in Magic, directed by Olivia Lamasan, with his real-life live-in partner of three years, Claudine Barreto, 22, as co-star.
Bobby Yan said their parents wanted Rico Yan to join them in their resort in Cebu for the Easter Holidays but Rico insisted that they had a segment to shoot in the Palawan resort.
Dos Palmas, an expensive island-resort off mainland Palawan, opened just recently. It was closed for months when tourist arrivals drastically dropped as a result of a raid by Abu Sayyaf extremists in June, last year.
The bandits seized some 20 Dos Palmas guests and workers, including three Americans, and brought them by a pirated ship to Basilan in the southern Philippines.
Most of the hostages have been released, except for the American couple. The bandits beheaded the third American as a "birthday gift" to President Gloria Arroyo last year.
