Ampatuan, Maguindanao chief of police P/Lt. Reynaldo Samson was buried a hero Tuesday at Everest Hills Memorial Park in Muntinlupa City, hundreds of miles away from where he was killed a week ago to the day while trying to arrest a member of the BIFF terror group in Mindanao.
Samson died on the spot, along with P/Cpl. Salihudin Endab, while three other policemen were wounded, during an ambush while they were trying to serve a warrant of arrest on Kamir Kambal in Barangay Kapinpilan, Maguindanao last 30 August.
On Monday evening, during the last night of the necrological services for Samson at the St. Peregrine Laziosi Parish in Barangay Tunasan, Muntinlupa, Samson's grieving mother, Francia, sought justice for her fallen son.
Speaking to reporters, Mrs. Samson sought the immediate arrest and prosecution of the BIFF rebels, led by alias "Boy Jacket" and Abdulnasser Guianid, following their identification as the ones responsible for the ambush of the policemen.
"What happened to my son is unacceptable, I hope justice will be given to my son. He was a loving child, a hero from the start as he helped a lot of people," she said.
Reynaldo was the sole breadwinner in their family who had supported his nephews and nieces, she added.
The 40-year-old Bicolano was a former member of the elite Presidential Security Group and recipient of a postdoctoral diploma in public management at the National College of Public Administration and Governance of the University of the Philippines Diliman in 2020.
Two days before his death, he cheered via social media graduate students who finished their Masters in Management in National Security Administration at the Philippine Christian University. In that post, Samson congratulated the second batch under his tutelage.
"May you always be the bastion of peace, security and development for our motherland. Forever grateful, thankful, and hopeful for your career in Public Service and Governance," he said.
Among the graduates was businessman Ramil Madriaga who told Daily Tribune that Samson was a great loss to the law enforcement and academic communities where he had served with the graciousness of a true public servant.
"We, his friends, students and those he had worked with in the intelligence community, had set an outreach operation in Ampatuan before his untimely demise. We are saddened, but we want to remember him as the happy fellow who had this zest for life," Madriaga said. "We may still go on with that outreach program in his honor."
Samson was also a member of the faculty in the graduate schools of the Pamantasan ng Muntinlupa and a lecturer at the Philippine Public Safety College and the Specialized Training Group of the Philippine National Police.
Mrs. Samson said her son seemed to have had a premonition of his death as he gave his best friend personal effects to be given to her in case he did not come back from the very dangerous mission of arresting a member of the BIFF, a breakaway group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
"Just because of that one-time, big-time operation, there, he got it one time," the mother said, the pain she was feeling apparent in her voice as she expressed the irony of what befell P/Lt. Samson. "I hope it (the killings and violence) will end and I hope justice will be given for the death of my child."
Samson's group was ambushed by about 10 heavily armed men as they were going back from their mission. It was not clear from the police reports whether they were able to arrest their quarry.
Most of the gunshots hit the front of the police service vehicle where Samson and Endab were positioned, killing them instantly.
