National Democratic Front consultant Ericson Acosta was one of two persons killed by government soldiers in Sitio Makilo, Barangay Camansi, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, 2 a.m. Wednesday, November 30, the NDF Negros said.
Also killed was peasant organizer Joseph Jimenez.
Two Communists New People’s Army (NPA) terrorists were killed in an encounter in Sitio Makilo Wednesday morning but have yet to be identified, Brig. Gen. Inocencio Pasaporte, 303rd Brigade commander, said.
“If the NDF identified Acosta well and good, we have a lead”, he said.
They have no record that Acosta was an NDF consultant. “It is proclaimed only by the rebels whenever an important NDF person is either killed or arrested,” Pasaporte said.
ACOSTA’S WIFE
Acosta’s wife, Kerima Lorena Tariman, 42, was killed in an encounter with the Army in Silay City, Negros Occidental, on August 20, 2021.
She was a leader of the NPA’s Northern Negros Front, while her husband was also an official of the rebel movement operating in Central Negros, Pasaporte said.
The NPA central command sent Tariman and Acosta to Negros Occidental 3 years ago to help revive the weakening rebel movement in the province, Pasaporte said.
Acosta, 50, is survived by his son with Kerima, 19-year-old Emmanuel who is a BS Math second year student at the University of the Philippines Diliman, his father-in-law writer Pablo Tariman said.
PHILIPPINE COLLEGIAN EDITORS
“Ericson and Kerima met at UP, they were both editors of the Philippine Collegian,” he said.
Acosta took up development studies at UP and quit when he was in his third year to go underground, Tariman said.
“Like my daughter, he was the quiet type, obsessed with poetry and not patient with social injustice. He was a good father and a good son,” he said.
“Ericson shared my daughter’s (Kerima) passion for poetry. But it is poetry in the service of the people. I grieve because my grandson has lost his parents. But I admire the principles they believed in. He was a true patriot up to the last hours of his life. That he joined my late daughter now is a consolation,” he added.
That he died while the country is observing Andres Bonifacio day is telling us something. Heroes are made to fight and are not content with staying in the background, Tariman said.
Acosta was one of more than 300 political detainees under the Aquino administration, having been arrested on Feb. 13, 2011, with a group of farmers in San Jorge, Samar, while doing field research and charged with illegal possession explosives and grenades, a 2013 Vera files report said.
He was released in 2013, after the justice department dropped the complaint against him.
NDF STATEMENT
Ka Bayani Obrero, NDF Negros spokesman, claimed the 94th Infantry Battalion and 47th Infantry Battalion captured Acosta and Jimenez who were alive at around 2 a.m. Wednesday and a few hours after “tagged them as casualties of a fake encounter”.
Pasaporte maintained that an encounter took place. The rebels always claim that there was no encounter when one of their own is killed, he said.
Acosta was in Kabankalan City, to consult on the situation of farm workers in the southern part of Negros Occidental and share developments regarding the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER). He was one of the NDF consultants working on the CASER, Obrero said.
NDF Negros, in the strongest terms condemns the “execution” of Acosta and his companion, he said.
“The entire revolutionary forces and the broad masses in Negros offer the highest tribute to Ka Ericson Acosta. Likewise, NDF Negros extends sympathies to Ka Ericson’s family, especially his son, and all those he has inspired,” Obrero said.
“Today, the Filipino people has lost a revolutionary, propagandist, poet, song writer, journalist, and thespian,” he added.
ARMY REPORT
An Army report said two unidentified bodies were found after the joint forces of 94th IB and 47th IB encountered about ten NPA rebels in Sitio Makilo at 2:10 a.m. Wednesday.
Residents complained about the daily extortion of food supplies by the rebels who introduced themselves as members of the NPA unit involved in the series of encounters in Carabalan, Himamaylan City, last October 2022. This prompted the residents to report the presence of the rebels to 94IB and 47IB, the Army said.
The two Infantry Battalions immediately conducted a joint combat operation in the area pinpointed by the residents and encountered about 10 rebels, whom they engaged in an about five-minute gunbattle, the Army added.
The rebels withdrew southward after sensing the overwhelming firepower of the troops. However, pursuit operations resulted to the second encounter at 2:15 a.m. 100 meters away from the first encounter site in the same sitio and a firefight lasted for 10 minutes, the Army added.
The rebels scampered in different directions leaving the two dead bodies of their comrades behind, the Army said.
Recovered from the dead bodies were a KG-9 with magazine and ammunition, two .45 caliber pistols with magazines and ammunition, two hand grenades, one Bagong Hukbong Bayan flag, a CPP flag, two Mao caps, subversive documents and lecture materials, the Army said.
Lt. Col. Van Donald Almonte, 94IB commander, lauded the bravery of the residents in reporting the presence of the NPA rebels in their area that led to the encounter.
“This is a clear display that the NPAs are becoming irrelevant in the communities of Kabankalan City and Negros as a whole,” he said.
“The people of Negros are now aware that the armed struggle is pointless because the government is now acting on the needs of the people. The last option for the remaining NPAs is to surrender or suffer the same fate like their fallen comrades”, Almonte added.*
