Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro on Wednesday, June 3, called on those protecting communist terrorists to also investigate the killing of a 79th Infantry Battalion soldier in Escalante City, Negros Occidental.
Private First Class John Rey Brasil, 29, was shot in the head by New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in Barangay Tamlang on Monday, said Teodoro, who visited the soldier’s wake at the Sagay District Hospital in Sagay City, Negros Occidental.
Brasil, who was originally from Iloilo, was residing in Murcia, where his 24-year-old wife is from. They have been married for a year, and his wife is devastated and has been given help for post-traumatic stress disorder, Teodoro said.
The wife is asking that her husband be buried on July 1 on her birthday, because her husband promised that he would be with her on that day.
Teodoro, who extended his condolences and provided assistance to the family of the slain soldier, said Brasil “led from the front and he died honorably on the field.”
The rebels who killed Brasil are members of the NPA group formerly led by Roger Fabillar, who was one of 19 killed in an encounter in Toboso on April 19, Lt. Col. Eric Alfonso, 79th IB commander, said.
The rebel group has been tagged in the killing of civilians in norther Negros, he said.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines will not stop its operations against the “criminal terrorists” causing trouble in communities in northern Negros, Teodoro said.
“If their activities are not stopped, they will become warlords,” he said.
Army operations against the communist rebels will continue to ensure that progress and development continue in Negros, Teodoro said.
Meanwhile, the Roselyn Jean Pelle Command of the NPA Northern Negros (RJPC-NPA) claimed responsibility for the death of the soldier in an encounter.
“As a column of the 79th IB approached the position of an RJPC-NPA unit, the red fighters seized the initiative and opened fire on the military executioners first,” the group said.
The RJPC-NPA also denied that the individual arrested at a checkpoint in Barangay Mabini, Escalante City, is a member of their group.*
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