Slain ex-student leader’s parents relinquish claim on remains

The parents of a former student leader killed in a recent armed encounter here have appealed to authorities and communist rebel groups to spare them from further distress, stating they will not claim their son’s remains.

In a handwritten letter dated 18 May, Romulo and Rica Dingding requested that all matters regarding the death of their son, Vince Francis Dingding, be coursed through their local barangay captain.

The parents revealed that the slain New People’s Army (NPA) recruit’s mother is currently battling colon cancer and has been medically advised to avoid stress.

“We decided that we will no longer claim his remains in Negros Occidental,” the parents wrote in a postscript to the letter.

The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) expressed profound grief over the incident, calling it a heartbreaking reminder of how the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front fractures families.

“Those words may be among the saddest sentences a parent could ever write,” the task force said in a statement sent to DAILY TRIBUNE, referencing the postscript.

“No mother and father dream of reaching a point where grief becomes so overwhelming... that they can no longer bring themselves to claim the remains of their own child,” it added.

According to the task force, the trajectory of Vince Dingding reflects a recurring pattern of student activists advancing into the armed underground.

Reports indicate that Dingding served as a student leader at the University of the Philippines Cebu from 2014 to 2015 and participated in political campaigns with the group Kabataan Cebu.

By 2017, Dingding had allegedly joined the armed movement, remaining within the NPA structures in Negros for nearly a decade.

Authorities said he assumed various political and organizational functions across different fronts in Negros before he was killed.

The task force criticized the rebel movement’s rhetoric of struggle and revolution, stating that ordinary Filipino families ultimately pay the highest price through broken bonds and permanent grief.