BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
One of the two suspected New People’s Army rebels, who died in a recent encounter with Army soldiers in Brgy. Pinggot, Ilog, Negros Occidental, has been claimed by his family, Maj. Cenon Pancito, 3rd Infantry Division spokesperson, said yesterday.
Pancito identified the slain rebel as Federico Boynalor Rivera, alias Nonoy, 37, of Sitio Payranan in the barangay.
The other slain rebel has yet to be identified, Pancito said.
Lt. Weann Sandag, 15th Infantry Battalion Civil Military Operations officer, said that the cadaver of Rivera had been claimed by his family members.
Sandag said Rivera went home on April 10 to deliver money to his family, according to his elder sister, who urged him to quit the NPA. Two weeks after, he died in the Ilog encounter, she added.
The April 24 encounter between 15IB soldiers and 10 suspected NPA rebels in Brgy. Pinggot, Ilog, also led to the recovery of an M16 assault rifle, a .45 caliber pistol, two homemade shotguns, an improvised anti-personnel landmine, assorted ammunition, and five backpacks containing personal belongings.
Sandag said the unidentified slain rebel was buried yesterday at the Ilog public cemetery. Two other NPA rebels also died in an encounter with 15IB soldiers in Brgy. Bulwangan, Hinobaan, several days earlier. But they were not claimed by their families, and the Hinobaan municipal government, local police, and soldiers, decided to bury them at a public cemetery in Brgy. 2 of the town.*
