- GILBERT BAYORAN
The Army’s 3rd Infantry Division belied allegations that ranking rebel leader Ericson Acosta, claimed by the Communist Party of the Philippines as a consultant of the National Democratic Front, was captured alive and later killed by government forces.
“Acosta was an armed NPA terrorist,” said Major Gen. Benedict Arevalo, the acting 3rd Infantry Division commander.
Acosta, who served as the first deputy secretary of the Komiteng Rehiyonal Negros/Cebu/Bohol Siquijor (KR NCBS), and his unidentified companion, died Nov. 30 during an encounter in Brgy. Camansi, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, Arevalo said.
“The undeniable fact is that Ericson Acosta and his comrade engaged the Army troopers in an encounter. It is unfortunate that they were neutralized in the encounter,” he stressed.
Acosta, with aliases of Raffy, Albert Jimenez, and Tan Tan, also served as head of the Political Unified Committee and an executive committee member of KR NCBS.
In a statement, NDF Negros spokesman, Ka Bayani Obrero, alleged that soldiers of the 94th and 47th Infantry Battalions strafed a house in Sitio Makilo, Brgy. Camansi, Kabankalan City, where NDF consultant Acosta and peasant organizer Joseph Jimenez were resting.
“They were taken forcefully and then salvaged,” Obrero claimed.
Brig. Gen. Inocencio Pasaporte, 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, said the description by the Negros NPA of Acosta as a peasant organizer, songwriter, poet, and harmless activist, aims to glorify his death and to cover up his involvement in numerous terroristic activities in Negros Island.
Pasaporte said that Acosta and his wife, Kerima Lorena Tariman, were both deployed in Negros Island in 2018 by the national organ of NPA, to oversee the regional party in Negros, due to internal squabble among its leaders.
Tariman, who had served as secretary of the recently dismantled Northern Negros Front, died in an encounter last year in Silay City, Negros Occidental, military records showed.
But based on their investigations and citing testimonies of witnesses, Obrero claimed that Acosta and Jimenez succumbed to hack and stab injuries.
The Army earlier said that aside from the cadavers found by soldiers at the encounter site, they also recovered a KG 9 automatic pistol with a magazine containing ammunition, two caliber 45 pistols, two fragmentation grenades, a CPP-NPA flag, and subversive documents.
Acosta is the second high-ranking NPA leader neutralized in Negros following the death of Romeo Nanta, alias Ka Juanito Magbanua, tagged by the Army as the regional commander of the NPA, in Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental in October this year./GB
