• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Following the deaths of several student activists and alumni of state universities who allegedly joined the armed movement, Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson on Tuesday called on school administrators to be more vigilant in monitoring student activities inside campuses.
Lacson issued the statement after another student activist and alumnus of University of the Philippines Cebu was among the five suspected New People’s Army (NPA) rebels killed in a series of encounters on May 16 in Barangays Abaca and Poblacion, Cauayan, Negros Occidental.
Authorities identified the fatality as Vince Francis Dingding, a former UP Cebu student leader.
Brig. Gen. Jason Jumawan, commander of the Army’s 302nd Infantry Brigade, said Dingding served as political instructor and deputy secretary of the NPA’s Southeast Front, a guerrilla unit earlier declared dismantled by government forces.
The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) said Dingding’s case reflects what it described as a recurring pattern involving activists who later joined armed rebel groups.
The task force also recalled previous cases involving former student activists who died in encounters with government troops in Negros Occidental.
Among them were UP-Dilliman student activists Allysa Alano and Maureen Keil Santuyo , RJ Ledesma, an alumnus of University of St. La Salle and a student activist, were among the 19 individuals killed in a series of armed encounters between rebel remnants and Army soldiers in Barangay Salamanca, Toboso, on April 19.
Jhon Isidor “Dee” Supelanas, a former UP Cebu communication graduate and transwoman activist, was also killed in an encounter with Army soldiers in Barangay Tapi, Kabankalan City, on April 29 last year. The military identified Supelanas as a political instructor of the NPA’s Southwest Front.
“Similar painful stories have surfaced before. Similar grieving families have spoken before. Similar tears have been shed before,” NTF-ELCAC executive director Ernesto Torres said in a statement.
Lacson expressed concern over the continuing deaths of young people in armed clashes, urging schools to closely monitor student activities within campuses.
Lacson, however, stressed that as long as they do not espouse armed struggle, schools cannot outright reject enrollees based solely on ideology.
“Casualties will continue if these encounters go on,” Lacson said, as he reiterated the provincial government’s call for armed rebels to surrender and return to mainstream society.
“We are calling on our brothers and sisters in the NPA to lay down their arms. The provincial government and local government units will assist them in their immersion back into society,” he added.
“We have done our part in helping former rebels. That is why I am confident in calling them to join the government,” Lacson said
In a handwritten letter dated May 18, Dingding’s parents, Romulo and Rica Dingding, said they would no longer claim the remains of their son.
Ernesto Torres Jr., executive director of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) described the statement as among the saddest words parents could write about their child.
The couple requested that all matters related to their son’s death be coursed through their barangay captain in Cebu City to spare the family further distress.
In the same letter, the family disclosed that Vince’s mother is battling colon cancer and had been advised to avoid stress to aid in her recovery.
Torres said the armed struggle leaves emotional wounds that persist long after armed encounters end.
“Even in the middle of mourning, a family was already struggling to survive another painful battle,” Torres said.
Authorities said Dingding had reportedly served as a student leader at UP Cebu from 2014 to 2015 and later became active in various political campaigns and organizations, including Kabataan Cebu, before allegedly joining the armed underground movement in 2017.
The military said he remained with NPA structures in Negros for nearly a decade, performing political and organizational functions in various guerrilla fronts.*
