MANILA, Philippines - You could hardly see the soldiers’ families crying as they awaited the remains of their loved ones to be flown in from Mindanao to Villamor Air Base in Pasay City yesterday.
It was rather quiet – their faces resting above balled fists – inside the holding room where the kin of 15 slain soldiers waited since morning.
“I have already accepted his death, but I don’t know if I can ever forget the pain it brought me,” said 54-year-old Natividad Maninang of her son, 1st Lt. Vladimer Maninang.
Maninang said her son was about to come home to their house in Santiago City, Isabela this weekend.
“We’re supposed to ask for the hand of his fiancee. He was so excited about it. So excited,” Mrs. Maninang said softly. “But that won’t happen anymore.”
Wedding bells will not toll either for the family of 2nd Lt Jose Delfin Khe, who was about to propose to his fiancee Jane Frances Madarang.
“It’s really difficult. We are doing our best to refocus our lives and move on,” said Khe’s younger brother 2nd Lt. Erren Khe.
Both Erren and Mrs. Maninang would look far away while answering questions as they shook their head once in a while.
Erren admitted crying after receiving the information from one of their senior officers.
He said he was in Kalinga at the time the news was relayed to him by phone.
“Prepare some money for Oct. 21” was the text message from his brother that he realized was a sort of goodbye.
“He instructed me to prepare money because we are about to start a new business. He told me to prepare it for Oct. 21,” Khe said.
“And what date is today? 21? I did prepare the money. I just didn’t know it was for his burial.”
Erren said their mother in Los Baños was advised not to come to Manila over fears her hypertension might get worse.
“Before my brother died, he gave our mother some money to buy a television set. After the purchase last Tuesday, my mother told my other sibling to tell (Khe) about it,” Erren said.
“To which, my sibling replied ‘patay na si kuya.’ When she turned the TV on, she saw my brother’s name on the news,” he added.
Maninang’s and Khe’s remains were among the 15 bodies flown from Mindanao. The C130 plane arrived 6:30 p.m.
More than 100 soldiers were designated as pallbearers, with seven men detailed for each casket. The soldiers, considered new heroes, received low-key military honors.
The caskets were expected to arrive at 2 p.m. but the cargo plane had to drop off some of the remains of the slain soldiers in Davao and Cagayan de Oro City. After which the plane headed for Fort Bonifacio, where the bodies were given full military honors.
The 19 were killed in a clash with MILF forces in Basilan last Tuesday. – With Edith Regalado, Raymund Catindig