Slain NPA rebel was a UP student council president

DAVAO CITY – The Southern Mindanao Regional Party Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (SMRPC-CPP) has confirmed that a former University of the Philippines in Mindanao (UP Mindanao) student council president belonged to their cadre of combatants when he was killed in an encounter with the military last Nov. 4 in Sarangani province.

In a media statement, the SMRPCCPP acknowledged that Rendell Ryan Edpan Caguia, 23, was “Comrade Lucas whose young life ended in the battlefield while fighting the fascist enemy troops of the 27th IB in Maasim, Sarangani,”

The group said that “Ka Lucas died along with three other red fighters during the encounter.”

“He resolved to go to the countryside in December 2013 and joined the New People’s Army.

He was later deployed to the Far Southern Mindanao Region where comrades and the peasant masses admired his innate leadership skills, critical thinking and fortitude,” the statement said.

It also noted that “Cagula became Comrade Lucas when he left the comforts of city life and became a Red fighter who followed the iron discipline contained in the NPA’s three rules of discipline and eight points of attention.”

Caguia was a student of UP Mindanao and also served as student council president from 2011 to 2012.

He, together with three other NPA rebels, were killed in an encounter with the military at Sitio Tubak, Barangay Nomol in Maasin, Sarangani province.

His body was claimed by his mother, Marina, who was shocked to learn that Caguia was being tagged as an NPA rebel.

While in the NPA, SMRPC said Cagula first served as a medic who participated in mass clinics and later became a political instructor of a platoon belonging to the Guerrilla Front 73 where he concentrated in the recovery of NPA areas.

The SMRPC also criticized the military for sensationalizing the death of Cagula which they said was aimed to “dissuade young activists and student leaders from participating in the people’s war.”

“The enemy’s spin doctors and hysterical anti-communists are quick to debase Comrade Lucas and his death as a senseless consequence from a useless war,” the SMRPC said.

Meanwhile, the 10th Infantry Division has sought the help of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group to conduct an investigation into the death of Caguia.