The 11th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army based in Siaton, Negros Oriental, is helping facilitate the requirements for the transport of a suspected Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) rebel to his hometown in Calatrava, Negros Occidental.
1st Lieutenant Rogem Pearl Lanuza, 11IB Civil-Military Operations officer, told the Philippine News Agency on Wednesday afternoon that among the needed documents are a police blotter report, the death certificate, and a permit to transport the body from the local government unit (LGU) of Sta. Catalina, Negros Oriental.
Jonard Salo, alias Lino/Rapid/Nikko, the alleged Team 2 leader of the remnants of the NPA’s dismantled South East Front, was killed during the April 14 encounter with 11IB troops in Sitio Tulong, Barangay Enrique Villanueva in Sibulan, Negros Oriental.
In that incident, the soldiers recovered an arms cache and the body of Salo, with the aid of a military working dog, soon after the encounter.
Lanuza said the documents have to be obtained from the LGU of Sta. Catalina as the encounter site sits on the boundary of this southern town and Sibulan.
The slain rebel’s remains are at a funeral home in Bayawan City, Negros Oriental, where his brother is currently residing, but the cadaver will have to be brought to their parents’ home in Barangay Cambayobo, Calatrava, she said.
The Calatrava LGU will provide the vehicle to transport the body of Salo, once all the documentary requirements are completed, she added.
The parents have not seen Salo for 11 years, thinking all the while that he was employed in Manila, and did not have any inkling that he had joined the underground movement, the Army officer said, quoting the brother.
Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Roderick Salayo, 11IB commanding officer, said “we are extending our assistance to Jonard Salo as a sign of our sincerity to help, of course, because he is a brother Filipino and it is just unfortunate that he was bearing arms against the government for quite a long time”.
“It is sad to note that his life ended this way,” Salayo added.
The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
The National Democratic Front has been formally designated as a terrorist organization by the Anti-Terrorism Council on June 23, 2021, citing it as “an integral and inseparable part” of the CPP-NPA created in April 1973.
Source: Philippines News Agency
