The mourning never stops for Tria

A BLACK GRANITE tomb is the final resting place of Senior Insp. Max Jim “Mac-Mac” Tria, one of the 44 members of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force who were slaughtered in the town of Mamasapano in Maguindanao province. Tria was just 27 years old when he was killed. FERNAN GIANAN/INQUIRER SOUTHERN LUZON

Grieving over the death of a beloved, devoted son in the Jan. 25, 2015 Mamasapano debacle is not yet over for the Tria family.

Every day, Senior Insp. Guillermo Tria and his wife travel the 1-kilometer distance from their bungalow in Barangay Cabihian to Palta Catholic Cemetery in Virac, Catanduanes’ capital town, to visit and pray for Senior Insp. Max Jim “Mac-Mac” Tria, who was just 27 when he died.

Tria was one of the 44 officers of the Special Action Force (SAF), the commando unit of the Philippine National Police, who died in a supposed “misencounter” between SAF men and Moro rebels in the town of Mamasapano, Maguindanao province.

Tria was part of two teams of elite policemen who were sent to the town under “Oplan Wolverine” to capture international terrorist, Jemaah Islamiyah leader Zulkifli bin Hir alias “Marwan,” and Filipino bomber Basit Usman.

Tria belonged to the unit that had just engaged and killed Marwan and was withdrawing from the area past 5 a.m. on Jan. 25, 2015 when ambushed by Moro rebels at a cornfield in Barangay Tukanalipao of Mamasapano.

They were supposedly mistaken for soldiers who entered Moro guerrilla territory without permission. Grossly outnumbered and reinforcement unable to reach them, 44 SAF men were slaughtered in the clashes.

When the gun battle stopped late in the afternoon, the police-military recovery team that arrived at 5:30 p.m. found the cornfield littered with bodies of both SAF men and Moro rebels, who also lost 18 of their comrades.

The next day, Tria’s family in Catanduanes received confirmation from the PNP that he was among the dead.

When blame is being laid on PNP and military officers, and even President Aquino, the Tria family chose to stay quiet and immediately brought his remains to Catanduanes, where Tria grew up.

Today, a first-time visitor to Palta Catholic Cemetery will not fail to notice a concrete mausoleum with brick-tiled walls, easily the biggest in the 2-hectare compound, just a few meters from a tree.

A steel accordion fence secures the 10-square meter building, at the center of which is Tria’s black granite tomb. Two lighted candles flicker at its foot while a cross hangs on the wall and a picture of the slain SAF officer is displayed atop the tomb.

“We vowed to visit him every day,” the elder Tria told the Inquirer in an interview at his home.

In the afternoon of Jan. 19, his wife, Efigenia, and several women were reciting prayers on the third of a nine-day novena leading to the first death anniversary of Max Jim on Monday.

“It will just be a simple one,” the elder Tria said of plans for his son’s first death anniversary commemoration.

On that day, family and relatives would go to the cemetery early to prepare for the 8 a.m. Mass.

Of five sons in the Tria brood, at least one would not be able to join the family reunion. The eldest, overseas worker Ace William, decided to stay a little longer in Spain in preparation for his homecoming in a few months to be with his policewoman wife, now pregnant with their first child.

The second, Guillermo, is in Manila for training as a seaman.

Apparently, no activity related to the commemoration of the Mamasapano debacle, or Tria’s death, has been scheduled on the same day by the provincial government or the municipality of Virac.

At Camp Francisco Camacho headquarters of the Catanduanes Police Provincial Office in Virac, an officer told the Inquirer that no activity related to the SAF 44 is scheduled next week.

“We are still waiting for directives from the PNP regional office, particularly regarding the celebration of the PNP Day,” the officer said.

The Tria family’s preoccupation with the death anniversary of their son means the absence of the family in Camp Crame on the day the SAF 44 would be honored with medals of valor.

Senior Insp. Tria admitted that an officer at the SAF headquarters called him last week but he politely declined the invitation to attend the medal awarding ceremony.

“It would be difficult for many of the SAF 44 families to attend since, like us, they too would rather be at their sons’ graves,” he said.

“If they had scheduled it on another day, perhaps I would have gone,” he added.

On the new Senate hearings on the Mamasapano debacle, Tria is noncommittal.

“We would probably stay away,” he said, although he said he had attended two hearings at the Department of Justice.

The Senate decided to reopen the Mamasapano investigation after Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile said he has evidence to prove that President Aquino was “actively” and “directly” involved in the planning and preparation of the Mamasapano operation but “did not do anything at all to save” the SAF 44.

Refusing to comment further, the elder Tria said he is keeping mum because he is still in active police service and retiring in August when he turns 55.

A source close to the family, however, revealed that while the Tria family has received the usual death benefits due a slain police officer and donations from nongovernment groups and politicians, they have yet to receive a single centavo of the assistance that the government had promised.