CAMP CAPINPIN, Tanay, Rizal — The ashes of an NPA who was killed during their March 28 offensive against soldiers in Rizal were turned over to his relative on Friday at Antipolo City.
This development came after Mayor Dennis “Tom” Hernandez of Rodriguez paid for the cremation expenses in response to the request of the family of Noel Levanta, a ranking communist cadre of the Metro Manila Regional Party Committee.
Lt Col Rimrad Feraer, Commanding Officer of the 80th Infantry Battalion and Lt Col Benjamin Pajarito Jr of 65th Infantry Battalion exerted all available means to establish contact with Levanta’s next of kin, his parents who are both senior citizens living in Mindanao, before negotiating with Ramil Levanta who introduced himself as cousin duly authorised to claim his remains.
“After confirming his identity and obtaining a joint affidavit from the parents, our team together with the PNP helped him reach out to Mayor Hernandez who granted Ramil’s request for the immediate cremation of Noel’s body so that health concerns during this pandemic will finally be addressed and his ashes sent home to his parents for proper disposition”, added Lt Col Feraer.
Police Colonel Renato Alba, Director of RIzal Provincial Police Office, said that prior to the cremation, “an autopsy was performed by the PNP’s crime laboratory to officially determine the former NPA’s cause of death whose body was left behind by his comrades who did not even consider giving him a decent burial.”
“We owe it to the families of these NPAs to ensure that their remains will only be handed over to those legally authorised to claim and that they will be given the last respects that every human being deserve instead of being desecrated”, ended Col Alba.
There have been numerous instances in the past when the bodies of NPAs who died in encounters were retrieved by posers pretending to be families and were paraded and used as propaganda tool to advance their so called “ideology” under the guise of being “martyrs of the revolution.”
It can be recalled that the March 28 encounter in Brgy Puray of Rodriguez, Rizal was the first of the NPA’s series of ceasefire violations in the area of Southern Tagalog which resulted to the death of three NPAs and one soldier.
Col Alex Rillera, Commander of the 202nd Brigade which has operational jurisdiction over CALABARZON, said that such violations, while our people were reeling from the corona virus contagion, were “solid proof that the NPAs have indeed deteriorated into a ragtag band of terrorists whose desperation for relevance and propaganda have taken primacy over the welfare and safety of our people.”
He reaffirmed the “government security forces’ commitment to continue with our mandate of serving our people and securing this part of our land without being remiss to our critical role in helping our people contain the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Major General Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos Jr, Commander of the Philippine Army’s 2nd Infantry Division, lauded the joint AFP and PNP forces in RIzal “for going the extra mile and exhausting all available means to ensure that the disposition of the body of NPA Leader Noel Levanta will be handled according to the wishes of his bereaved family.”
He added that the government’s display of compassion in handling the body of the dead NPA leader “supports our earlier statement that we do not rejoice in killing our fellow Filipinos, however, we have a solemn duty to protect the greater number of peace loving citizens of our country”, added Maj Gen Burgos.
He ended his statement by expressing his soldiers’ “deepest condolences to the Levanta family” while saying that “his death will serve as additional motivation for us to end local communist armed conflict in the soonest possible time because we believe that the moment is now ripe for national unity and reconciliation so that our people may finally enjoy the fruits of peace, prosperity and development.”
[Kalinaw News is the official online source of information on the pursuit for peace in the Philippines This website is a property of the Civil-Military Operations Regiment, Philippine Army located at Lawton Avenue, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City. Contact us: kalinawnews@cmoregiment.com]
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