• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
A former student of University of the Philippines (UP) Cebu was among the five alleged New People’s Army (NPA) remnants killed in the May 16 encounter with government forces in Cauayan, Negros Occidental.
In a statement, the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) expressed sadness over the death of Vince Francis Dingding, who was identified by the Philippine Army as the deputy secretary of the dismantled Southeast Front-Komiteng Rehiyonal Negros.
Others killed in the gunbattle were Rolando Dantes, commanding officer of the dismantled Southwest Front, as well as members Jobert Casipong, Gilbert Tingson, and Alexander Chavez Languita.
Soldiers recovered eight high-powered firearms, including an M60 machine gun and three explosives, at the encounter site.
Dingding was a former UP Cebu student council vice chairperson and a scholar of the Department of Science and Technology.
NTF-ELCAC said that Dingding was once active in student leadership circles and associated with the UP Cebu community before allegedly joining underground revolutionary structures in Negros.
“His death is another painful reminder of the continuing tragedy caused by the CPP-NPA-NDF terror-grooming pipeline — a process that preys on the idealism of young Filipinos and draws them from advocacy spaces into underground networks and eventually, armed struggle,” NTF-ELCAC executive director Ernesto Torres Jr. said.
In April last year, Jhon Isidor “Dee” Supelanas, a former UP Cebu communication graduate, a transwoman activist, and student leader, died in an encounter with Army soldiers in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental.
The military had identified Supelanas as a political instructor for the NPA Southwest Front. | GB
