Military turns over body of suspected NPA in Zamboanga del Sur, Butuan City

Soldiers deliver the body of a slain New People’s Army (NPA) combatant Jayman Taata alias Rico to his family in Dilud village in Dumingag town, Zamboanga del Sur at dawn Sunday. Taata was killed in a clash with government troops. PHOTO BY 53rd IB

PAGADIAN CITY — Troops from the 53rd Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (PA) delivered the body of a slain New People’s Army (NPA) combatant to the latter’s family in Dilud village, Dumingag town, Zamboanga del Sur on Sunday.

According to Lt. Col. Terence Ylanan, 53rd IB commander, Jayman Taata alias Rico was killed in a clash with government troops in Sitio Tulah, Sunop village, Dumingag town on Friday, June 23.

He said the slain rebel was not immediately identified but was later traced as a member of the defunct NPA front committee Big Beautiful Country (BBC), where he served as a security.

According to Ylanan, members of the defunct NPA unit are still roaming the mountain range bordering Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur to hide from government forces.

Lt. Col. Nolasco Coderos Jr., commander of the 97th Infantry Battalion, said his men chanced upon the NPA rebels while on security patrol at Sitio Tulah, Sunop village, triggering a 22-minute firefight.

Troops recovered assorted war materials and personal belongings left by the rebels who escaped.

Coderos attributed to the same group of rebels the encounter that wounded a member of the Civilian Armed Force Geographical Unit (Cafgu) in the adjacent village of Paraiso in Mahayag town of Zamboanga del Sur on Wednesday, June 21.

On the same day, in Lakewood town, Zamboanga del Sur, soldiers also brought home to her family the body of Aira Mae Sinajon, 24, recovered after a clash with NPA rebels in Malaybalay, Bukidnon three days earlier.

Sinajon, a scholar of the Mindanao State University (MSU) – Iligan Institute of Technology in 2017, was finally laid to rest on Sunday, June 25, after her family in Poblacion village, Lakewood town received her body.

In Butuan City, soldiers of the 29th Infantry Battalion and members of the city Task Force to End Local Armed Conflict (CTF-Elcac) also facilitated the burial of two slain NPA members in sitio Dugyaman, Barangay Anticala on Wednesday, June 21.

According to the military, the troops extricated the bodies of the two slain rebels from the encounter site. Then, they brought them to the funeral homes and eventually to their final resting place, with all funeral and interment expenses paid by CTF-Elcac.

Two soldiers even served as pallbearers during the burial of Roel Arellano Maglasang alias Do or Dali, whom the military identified as executive commander of the NPA’s northeastern Mindanao regional committee and his wife Raylin Zubiri alias Apple, whom the military identified as a finance staff of the NPA unit.

Two more bodies were claimed by their respective families and brought to the areas where they were to be buried, according to Lt. Col. Cresencio Gargar, commanding officer of the 29th IB.

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JPV