Unclear AFP custody of slain activist’s body sparks rights concerns

For rights defenders, the Cauayan incident cannot be separated from this broader climate of militarization and impunity.

CABUYAO CITY, Laguna — Human rights defenders in Central Visayas raised alarm after reports surfaced that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) moved to take custody of the remains of slain activist Vince Francis Dingding under circumstances that relatives, paralegals, and advocates described as unclear and deeply troubling.

According to friends and volunteer paralegals who traveled to Cauayan, Negros Occidental to pay their last respects, staff at R & S Funeral Homes said that they were instructed by AFP and police personnel to place Dingding’s body inside a crate for transport. Funeral workers reportedly could not say where the remains would be brought.

For Karapatan Central Visayas, the incident raises urgent questions not only about transparency in the handling of the body but also about the dignity and rights of grieving families caught in the middle of the government’s counterinsurgency campaign.

“This is no longer simply about custody over remains,” the group said in a statement. “This is about respect for the dead, the rights of families, and the continuing pattern of state control over narratives surrounding victims of militarization.”

The controversy emerged after the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) released a handwritten letter signed by Dingding’s parents stating that they would no longer claim their son’s body, with local officials in Cauayan supposedly facilitating the burial instead.

Karapatan noted, however, that the letter was reportedly written on May 18 during a visit to the family’s residence by individuals identifying themselves as members of AFP Visayas Command. The group said that this context must be examined carefully, especially given the power imbalance between military authorities and families already reeling from loss and fear.

“The circumstances under which the letter was written deserve scrutiny,” the group said. “Families grieving under the presence of state forces cannot be viewed outside the broader climate of intimidation that has long characterized counterinsurgency operations in the country.”

Dingding, a graduate of University of the Philippines Cebu and former student leader, was among five individuals killed during a military operation in Cauayan on May 16. Also killed were Jobert Casipong, Gilbert Tingson, Rolando Dantes, and Alex Chavez Languita.

Military officials, including Brig. Gen. Jason Jumawan of the 302nd Infantry Brigade, framed Dingding’s death as the story of a youth allegedly “misled” into armed struggle. But rights advocates argued that such portrayals erase the social and political conditions that shaped his life and activism.

Karapatan said that reducing Dingding into a mere cautionary tale for counterinsurgency propaganda strips him of his political agency and obscures the realities faced by many young Filipinos confronting poverty, landlessness, labor exploitation, and state repression.

“Publicly packaging the dead as propaganda material while denying independent scrutiny over the circumstances of their deaths is a grave disservice to truth and accountability,” the group said.

Human rights advocates also warned against immediately accepting the AFP’s version of events. They pointed to what they described as a longstanding pattern in Negros Island of killings being justified through allegations that victims were armed rebels, only for later investigations to reveal inconsistencies in official accounts.

Negros has remained militarized for years, with peasant communities, labor organizers, and activists reporting cases of harassment, red-tagging, warrantless arrests, enforced surrender campaigns, and extrajudicial killings.

Karapatan recalled the April 19 military operations in Toboso, Negros Occidental that left 19 dead. A subsequent national fact-finding mission found that at least nine of those killed were unarmed civilians, contradicting earlier military claims that all casualties were combatants.

For rights defenders, the Cauayan incident cannot be separated from this broader climate of militarization and impunity.

Dingding was widely known in Cebu student circles for campaigning for accessible education and later participating in workers’ rights advocacy after graduation. Fellow victim Jobert Casipong, according to reports cited by progressive groups, had previously returned to civilian life but allegedly endured persistent military harassment and death threats before rejoining the underground movement.

“These stories do not emerge in a vacuum,” Karapatan said. “People are driven to desperation by structural injustice, militarization, and the closing of democratic space.”

Karapatan Central Visayas called for an immediate, impartial, and independent investigation into the Cauayan operation, including possible violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.

“Even in death, victims of state violence and armed conflict deserve dignity,” the group said. “Truth, accountability, and respect for human rights must prevail over propaganda.” (RTS, DAA)

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