The father of slain rebel Kerima Lorena Tariman wept unabashedly on seeing the remains of his daughter at the morgue of a funeral parlor in Manapla, Negros Occidental.
Pablo Tariman, who writes performing arts stories and reviews for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, said he had not seen his daughter for a long time and learned of her death after an encounter between the New People’s Army and the 79th Infantry “Masaligan” Battalion in Hacienda Raymunda, Brgy Kapitan Ramon, Silay City in Negros Occidental, on Friday.
He arrived in Negros Monday to claim the body of his 42-year-old daughter, which was cremated Tuesday afternoon, August 24.
On seeing Kerima in the morgue, Tariman said “I stared at her not believing she was surrounded by dead persons. Then I found myself crying unabashedly. I think I literally howled with grief. I couldn’t believe she was gone”.
“I embraced her and kissed her forehead,” he said.
Kerima’s 18-year-old son, a freshman BS Math student at the University of the Philippines (UP) whom he raised, accepted her death with amazing calmness, Tariman said.
They have had no contact with Kerima’s husband, Emmanuel Acosta, he said.
Kerima was a former managing editor of the Philippine Collegian at UP, where she took up Philippine Studies and met her husband.
A couple of years before graduation his daughter disappeared and was later found in the jungles of Isabela figuring in an armed encounter between the NPA and the military in 2000. She was detained in Ilagan, Isabela, for a case of illegal possession firearms that was dismissed 2001, Taminan said.
He learned that his daughter was in Negros two years ago. Tariman said.
The last time he saw Kerima alive was three years ago and it was very brief, he added.
“It is painful, but through the years I had gotten used to seeing her on very rare and brief occasions and accepted early on that something would happen to her eventually,” he said.
“When it happened, when she died I was ready, I was not surprised, I accepted that a long time ago because that was the life she had chosen and I respected that,” he said.
“I am proud her, I liked her kind of journey no matter how brief it was…she died at 42 with so much life ahead of her. Perhaps she wanted to remind the nation that something is very wrong with our system, something is very wrong with our leaders and that something should be done, ” he said.
Tariman said he learned of his daughter’s death when someone sent him a message about an encounter in Silay and that one of the casualties could be his daughter.
The Army said she was the leader of the New People’s Army Northern Negros Front.
“She was there to sow terror and chaos and exploit the Negrenses. She was never a people’s hero. She is the cause of people’s hardship in the area”, Maj. Cenon Pancito III, spokesperson of the Philippine Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, said.
Kerima, another rebel and an Army soldier were killed in the Silay encounter.
The slain male rebel initially identified as Pabling is Joery Dato-on Cocuba, 38 of Canetown, Brgy. Consing, EB Magalona, Negros Occidental, an Army press release said Tuesday.
He was an extortionist and involved in the burning of several heavy equipment in Barangay Consing in April. The 79IB is looking for the wife and other family members of Cocuba to properly turn-over his cadaver, the press release said.*