Maguindanao town mourns loss of 'soldier-son'

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines – Residents of North Upi, Maguindanao are mourning the loss of an “adopted soldier-son” who had actively participated in local projects meant to propagate unity among the area’s Moro, Christian and indigenous communities while assigned in the area.

North Upi Mayor Ramon Piang, an ethnic Teduray chieftain, said he has asked his constituents to pray for 1Lt. Gerard Flores, one of the six Army fatalities in last Saturday’s deadly attacks by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in Pikit, North Cotabato and Saidona town in this province.

“He had a good rapport with the people in North Upi. We will miss him,” Piang said. 

Subordinates of Flores, who belonged to the Alpha Company of the Army’s 68th Infantry Battalion, said the officer seemed to have premonitions something was to happen to him because he kept telling them, a week before he perished, to be good soldiers, to be respectful of their superiors and be responsible parents  despite being  an unmarried man.

Flores, who graduated from the Philippine Military in 2009, and his companions were dispatched early Saturday to Barangay Ganta in Saidona to check the heavy presence there of BIFF bandits mulcting money from villagers.

As they approached a strategic spot in Barangay Ganta, where BIFF forces were holding out, Flores took the lead and ordered his men to trail at least 15 meters behind, so that they can maneuver to safety if they are suddenly attacked.

Even before Flores and his men could reach a rice field they were to clear, bandits set off a roadside bomb fashioned from a live 81 MM mortar, killing Flores and two soldiers behind him, Privates First Class Jessie Pauig and Reynante Arubio.

Friends of Flores in Maguindanao’s hinterland North Upi town, where he was last assigned,  said he was a very jolly person, who had been friendly to the local Muslim and Christian communities.

Lt. Col. Marceliano Teofilo, commanding officer of the 6th IB, said subordinates of Flores were surprised with his strange behavior days before he got killed in action.

Teofilo said Flores gave his newest pair of combat uniform and “shiniest” boots as a “token” to a subordinate, an enlisted soldier, who was his classmate both in elementary and high school somewhere in Guimaras.

“He borrowed an old combat boots and wore an old uniform when he was sent to the operation where he was killed,” Teofilo said.

A close friend of Flores, Clinton Colcol, who works at the human resources division of the office of Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, said Flores would call his parents  as often as he could.

“In fact he did not have plans of getting married yet because he wanted to help his parents. He told us how poor they were in Guimaras,” Colcol said.

Subordinates of Flores told The Star he was a brave officer, who never retreated from fierce encounters.

“He saw extensive action when we were sent to Camp Omar last year to clear the area from BIFF occupation and hoist the Philippine Flag there,” an Army sergeant, who asked not to be identified, said.

Camp Omar, located at the borders of Maguindanao’s Guindulungan, Datu Saudi and Datu Unsay towns, was where the renegade Saudi-trained cleric Ameril Ombra Kato established the BIFF in late 2011 and renounced the July 1997 Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.  - John Unson