• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
An alumnus of University of the Philippines Cebu was among the five alleged New People’s Army (NPA) rebel remnants killed in a recent encounter with government forces in Cauayan, according to the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
In a statement, 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 South East Front of the Komiteng Rehiyonal Negros.
Also killed in the gun battle were alleged rebel leaders and members identified as Rolando Dantes, commanding officer of the dismantled South West Front – KR Negros, Jobert Casipong, Gilbert Tingson, and Alexander Chavez Languita.
Army soldiers recovered eight high-powered firearms, including an M60 machine gun, and three explosives at the encounter site, aside from the cadavers of five slain rebels.
Dingding was reported as a former UP-Cebu student council vice chairperson and a scholar of the Department of Science and Technology.
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 a statement.
In April 29 last year, Jhon Isidor “Dee” Supelanas, also a UP Cebu communications graduate, a transwoman activist, and student leader, was killed in an encounter with Army soldiers in an armed clash in Barangay Tapi, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental. The military identified Supelanas as a political instructor for the NPA’s southwest front.
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.
The task force said Dingding was among many young Filipinos who entered advocacy and civic spaces with a desire to contribute to social change, but later became involved in armed struggle. NTF-ELCAC reiterated its call for stronger efforts to prevent what it described as “terror grooming” and underground recruitment of young people into armed organizations.
It urged families, schools, universities, communities, and institutions to work together in protecting the youth and ensuring that legitimate social concerns are not exploited as pathways to violence and armed struggle.*
