“P.S. We decided we will no longer claim his remains in Negros Occ.” - Parents of Vince Francis Dingding, a UP Cebu Alumnus who was recently killed in Negros clash
In a handwritten letter dated May 18 and signed by both parents, Romulo and Rica Dingding formally appealed that all matters relating to their son's death be coursed through their barangay captain in order to spare the family from further distress. In the same letter, they revealed that Vince’s mother is battling colon cancer and had been strictly advised to avoid stress to aid her healing and recovery.
Even in the middle of mourning, a family was already struggling to survive another painful battle.
But perhaps no words captured the human tragedy more painfully than the postscript written at the end of the letter:
"P.S. We decided that we will no longer claim his remains in Negros Occ."
Those words may be among the saddest sentences a parent could ever write. No mother and father dream of reaching a point where grief becomes so overwhelming, pain becomes so unbearable, and emotional wounds become so deep that they can no longer bring themselves to claim the remains of their own child, who was snatched from them by a selfish, violent movement.
Behind that sentence is a pain difficult to measure and impossible to reduce into statistics.
The CPP-NPA-NDF often speaks of struggle, sacrifice, and revolution. But the question that must be asked is this: sacrifice for whom? Revolution at whose expense?
Because in the end, it is ordinary Filipino families that pay the highest price.
The path of Vince Dingding reflects a disturbing pattern that has surfaced repeatedly through the years. Reports indicate that he served as a student leader in UP Cebu from 2014 to 2015 and participated in various campaigns and political activities. Prior to joining the armed movement, he reportedly became involved in Kabataan Cebu.
By 2017, he had allegedly entered the armed underground and remained within NPA structures in Negros for nearly a decade. Through the years he reportedly assumed political and organizational functions within various units before later operating in different fronts in Negros.