GILBERT BAYORAN
A 70-year-old man was among the three suspected New People’s Army rebels, who died in recent encounters with the 94th Infantry Battalion soldiers in Sitio Bugne, Brgy. Oringao, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, the police said.
P/Capt. Judesses Catalogo, spokesperson of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office, yesterday identified the three fatalities as Diomedes Lasida, 70, of Brgy. Pinggot, Ilog; Joemarie Calumba, 47, of Brgy. Oringao, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental; and Jun Jun Callete, 42, of Sitio Buhi, Brgy. Tanlad in Tayasan, Negros Oriental.
Catalogo said Calumba was positively identified by his wife, Leolita, while Callete was identified by his mother, Bebita.
Capt. Mervin Rosal, spokesperson of the 303rd Infantry Brigade, yesterday said that Calumba was a member of the Central Negros 1 under the Komiteng Rehiyonal Negros/Cebu/Bohol/Siqujior.
Three firearms and a rifle grenade, several backpacks containing personal belongings, including a T-shirt of the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office of Binalbagan, were among the war materials and items recovered by Army soldiers at the encounter site.
The mother of Callete told the police that her son was invited by his friends, who later surrendered to authorities, to join the NPA last year.
But the appeal of Bebita for her son to surrender was ignored by his comrades, until he died, Catalogo said./GB
