Lawyer JR Sanchez, Emmanuel Tariman Acosta, lawyer Luchi Perez and Fr. Eryl Agus (l-r) in front of the Kabankalan City Hall.*Pablo Tariman photo
The son of a slain alleged top rebel leader in Negros Occidental arrived Friday, December 2, to claim the body of his father.
Last year he was also in Negros to claim the remains of his slain mother.
Emmanuel Tariman Acosta, 19, who is a BS Math second year student at the University of the Philippines Diliman, arrived from Manila to claim the body of Ericson Legaspi Acosta who died in Sitio Makilo, Barangay Camansi, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, on Wednesday, November 30.
The National Democratic Front claimed his father was an NDF consultant who was picked up by government soldiers and murdered.
The Philippine Army denied the allegation and has maintained that Ericson Acosta was killed in an encounter between government soldiers and New People’s Army (NPA) fighters.
He was the deputy secretary of the Komiteng Rehiyon- Negros Cebu Bohol Siquijor (KR-NCBS) and the head of Political Unified Committee of the NPA in the Visayas at the time of his death, Capt. Marvin Rosal, Civil-Military Operations Officer of the 303rd Infantry Brigade, said.
Emmanuel was also in Negros last year to claim the body of his mother, Kerima Tariman. She was an alleged NPA leader killed in an encounter with the 79th IB in Silay City on Aug. 22, 2021, Rosal said.
The 19-year-old , with his grandfather writer Pablo Tariman, went to Kabankalan City on Friday to claim the body of his father.
They were accompanied by Sentro Para sa Tunay Na Repormang Agraryo (SENTA) lawyers JR Sanchez and Luchi Perez and Fr. Eryl Agus from the Kabankalan Cathedral Parish.
They claimed the body of Acosta at the Sola Funeral Parlor in Barangay Hilamonan, Kabankalan City, and brought it to Bacolod City. They will return to Manila with Acosta’s remains on Saturday, Tariman said.
“Emman was calm but I have never seen such loneliness in my grandson’s face,” he said.
“I am devastated but I accept what happened,” Tariman said.
“The SENTRA lawyers were such a big help. I cannot thank them enough,” he added.*