Ensure justice for fallen SAF 44

SO OTHERS MAY LIVE. Members of the PNP-SAF salute as the PO2 Windel L. Candano’s casket was taken out of PRO-7. (CDN PHOTO/CHRISTIAN MANINGO)

The family of PO2 Windel Candano made one request to President Aquino, who turned 55 yesterday.

They want the President to fulfill his promise to give justice to Candano and the 43 other Special Action Force (SAF) policemen killed in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

“Don’t forget to give justice for the death of my son,” said Candano’s father, Eusebio, as the policeman was laid to rest at noon yesterday.

PO1 Romeo Cempron, the other Cebuano member of the ill-fated SAF unit was also buried yesterday in his hometown in Consolacion.

The white flag-draped casket bearing the policeman’s remains was brought to St. Ignatius Chapel inside the Police Regional Office (PRO-7) headquarters in Camp Sergio Osmeña Sr. from St. Peter’s Memorial Chapel for a Requiem Mass which was attended by about 500 people.

Candano was buried with full military honors at the Cebu South Memorial Garden in Talisay City.

Many of the people who attended the funeral wore white shirts that bore the name of the policeman and messages that read: “Fallen hero,” “We will miss you” and “Justice for Windel.”

PRO-7 chaplain, Fr. Arnulfo Castillo and Fr. Victor Gonzaga of the Basilica Del Sto. Niño concelebrated the Mass.

In his homily, Castillo raised a heart-shaped cutout with the letters ‘PNP’ which he explained means “Passion and Performance.”

“They have the passion in protecting the country that showed good performance that resulted in their heroism,” he said.

Ten members of the regional SAF unit served as pallbearers. At the South Memorial Park, a squad of policemen fired a 21-gun salute which was preceded by drum rolls. Members of the uniformed service who attended the funeral saluted as the band played taps and SAF members shouted “Hooah! SAF.” The flag draped on Candano’s casket was then folded and handed to his widow, Michelle, by Senior Supt. Orlando Ualat, deputy director for administration of the PRO-7, who intoned, “Accept this flag that symbolizes his bravery and heroism. Please keep it as a remembrance of his service with the Philippine National Police.”

Michelle clasped the flag close to her chest as her 7-year-old son, Sian Gabriel, went to his father’s casket and offered a white flower.  Emotions ran high as the policeman’s casket was closed for the last time.

Ualat attended the Mass on behalf of Chief Supt. Prudencio Bañas, the regional police chief, who was in Consolacion to attend the funeral of PO1 Romeo Cempron.

No national government official attended the funeral rites, but Interior Secretary Mar Roxas was at Candano and Cempron’s wake on Saturday.

Similar honors were also accorded to Cempron who was laid to rest in a cemetery in barangay Tayud. SAF troopers carried his casket  from St. Joseph’s Pastoral Center to St. Joseph’s Church where a requiem Mass was held.

Cempron’s widow, Christine, carried her late husband’s framed “Certificate of Katapangan” as she marched together with the pallbearers.

Superb stories
In her message before the final blessing was given, Christine thanked the people who comforted them. “The brave 44 have their own heroic story and it’s an honor to know one of them. All of them have superb stories,” she paused as tears started to flow from her eyes.

“I was still hoping to wake up from a bad dream,” she said. “I appeal justice for them. Let us also pray for them because they had burdens especially to those who were not yet ready to go,” she said.
Chief Supt. Prudencio Bañas, the PRO-7 chief, said in his speech, “I am proud to say that SAF 44 are special not because they died but because how they lived.”

‘No one was ignored’
The Department of Interior and Local Government meanwhile said Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas neither “ignored” nor was he “selective” in condoling with relatives of the slain policemen.

The DILG yesterday issued a clarification after the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported on the lament of the mother of PO3 John Lloyd Sumbilla of Morong, Bataan.

The lament came out in the story titled, “SAF man’s dying wish: P100 load,” which INQUIRER.net posted on its website on Saturday, February 7. “We were ignored,” said Telly Sumbilla, 62, after Roxas failed to go to their house on Wednesday last week after he had visited the families of other slain police commandos in northern Luzon.

The grief of Sumbilla’s family was reportedly heightened since they were first told that Roxas would be coming that Tuesday, but the secretary was a no-show. In a statement, the DILG said it wanted to “clear the story … claiming that SILG Roxas was selective and was not available to condole with the families” of Sumbilla and Kibete.

It explained that Roxas planned to go to Bataan and Bulacan but “was called to a meeting in the Palace by the President.”/with Inquirer