2 ex-Anakbayan members among 9 killed in Ecija clash

Carranglan, Nueva Ecija

CABANATUAN CITY – Two former members of the Anakbayan student group were among the nine armed men killed in a clash between soldiers and suspected communist rebels on Sept. 20 in Carranglan town in Nueva Ecija.

Guiller Martin Cadano, of Pampanga, and John Paul Calica of Bulacan, were listed by the police as among the fatalities in the encounter between the armed group and soldiers from the Army’s 84th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Burgos in Carranglan.

Calica was a former member of Anakbayan in De La Salle University and Cadano was a psychology graduate of the University of the Philippines.

In 2014, Cadano was arrested along with another UP graduate, Gerald Salonga, in Carranglan for allegedly possessing unlicensed guns and explosives. They were ordered released by a Regional Trial Court in San Jose City in December 2016, police said.

Also killed in the Sept. 20 encounter were Emmanuel Canlad, Alvin Soria, Vic Nagawang, Joel Manangan, Lanea Mirindu, Joel Amatorio and Carlo Laguitan.