CANDONI, Negros Occidental, Philippines – The remains of six dead Communist armed remnants, supposedly fighting for a socialist and atheist state, were blessed by a Roman Catholic priest, not sent off to the strains of the Internationale, before they were buried yesterday here, and remained anonymous in death as they have largely been to the Communist Party in life.
More than 24 hours after they were slain in a gunfight that lasted more than 40 minutes in a woodland area of Gatuslao village, Subjects B, C, D, E, F, and G – identifiers for the cadavers who remained unknown and starting to give off the smell of rot at the town’s Rural Health Unit – were each placed in ordinary plywood coffins and buried together in one grave at the town’s public cemetery.
Townsfolk, some employees of the municipal government, acted as mourners of sorts and pallbearers for the dead even though many swear they don’t know any of the slain rebels in this small town close to a four-hour drive south from here.
Only one of the seven, first identified as Subject A, was fetched by his relatives and brought home to Kamansi, an upland village close to two hours away in neighboring Kabankalan City.
Junel Aniceto, said to be in his 30s, single was identified by an aunt who told DNX her nickname was ‘Gamay.’
She admitted they did not know Junel had joined the NPA but went more than a year ago from his home in Camansi.
She added she was able to identify Junel’s face and saw that he had wounds, possibly from gunshots on one of his legs and buttocks.
Camansi, a village around eight kilometers away from the Kabankalan proper, was where Army soldiers clashed with an NPA unit in 2022 that led to the death of Ericson Acosta identified by the military as a national Communist cadre sent to Negros to lead recovery efforts.
The six, part of the rebel unit that engaged soldiers around 4am Thursday were buried in one grave, together in death like in life when they fought soldiers of the 47th and 15th Infantry Battalions around 4am Thursday who were deployed after them over complaints from villagers who have been fed up with the repeated extortion of rebels who have been fotcing then to give either food or cash.
“We acted on the information provided by residents in the area near the clash site,” Lieutenant Colonel Magno Mapalad, commander of the 47th Infantry Battalion told DNX Friday morning hours after his troops and those from the 15th IB based in Cauayan town, Negros Occidental clashed with the dead rebels in Gatuslao, a village 10 kilometers away from the town proper.
Gatuslao is also one of two villages, the other Agboy, where a palm oil plantation sprawled over 4,000 hectares, is located.
Candoni is part of the CHICKS area, an acronym for the localities under the province’s Sixth Political District once known as a rebel-infested area and for places with high poverty incidents in the 1980s.
The New People’s Army, armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, used to launch daring attacks in this town, including a raid on a detachment of the Army in Caningay village and another on a base of the elite Scout Rangers.
The Cantomanyog Zone of Peace that prohibits the entry of both soldiers and rebels alike to the place and the first and only one of its kind in the province, is located in Haba village in the town.
