Body of Ka Oris’ son taken back to Surigao City for burial

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – The body of the son of the late communist leader Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos, who was killed in a September 3 encounter with the military in Bukidnon, was taken to Surigao City where he would be given a decent burial by his relatives.

Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Bacus, the commander of the Army’s 8th Infantry Battalion, said the remains of the 42-year-old Vincent Isagani Madlos were claimed by his paternal uncle Rito.

The military said the younger Madlos had served as the head of the NPA’s National Communications Bureau, a position he held after his father Ka Oris was killed in an encounter in Impasug-ong town last year.

His father was the National Democratic Front (NDF) spokesman and the highest ranking NPA official known in Mindanao until his death in October 2021.

His uncle Rito Madlos, the same relative who claimed the cremains of Ka Oris, came and took Vincent Isagani’s body from the Villanueva Funeral Parlor in Malaybalay City on Thursday, September 8, Bacus said.

The younger Madlos was killed along with his 28-year-old wife, Glory Vic Belandres (earlier identified by the military as Angie Polandres Salinas), during a clash with soldiers in Impasug-ong, the same town where his father died in what the Army claimed was an encounter.

Bacus said Vincent Isagani was not cremated, unlike his father who was allegedly found to be infected with COVID-19.

Bacus said Belandres’ relatives – Joel Cuyugan and Alexander Bucales, the Indigenous Peoples Mandatory representative of Lianga town in Surigao del Sur – took her remains to Diatagon in Surigao del Sur.

The local government of Impasug-ong footed the funeral bill, including the expenses of bringing the remains of Belandres to her village in Diatagon.

Bacus said expenses for Vincent Isagani were covered by an insurance plan of the Madlos family.

Rito said they would bury the younger Madlos beside the grave of his father at the Surigao Memorial Park in Surigao City. – Rappler.com