THIS time around, an Ifugao brave is the fifth Cordilleran gunned down in the battle raging in Marawi City.
Police Officer 1 Moises Kimayong, a Special Action Force officer, who hails from Lagawe in Ifugao, died a heroic death not only because he died on the battlefield, but because he was gunned down by a sniper while trying to carry a wounded fellow fighter to safety. He was in a team on a test mission before becoming a Scout Ranger of the Philippine Army.
Kimayong’s remains will be flown to Lagawe, where he will be buried.
Ethnic Cordillerans are believed to be warriors by blood—fierce in the defense of their land and kin. It was a claim repeated when14 of those who died among the Special Action Force (SAF) 44 in the controversial Mamasapano carnage were from these highland region. It took the lives of 44 SAF fighters to take down Malaysian bomb maker terrorist Zulkifli Bin Itir, known as Marwan.
At that time, about 65 percent of the elite SAF troopers were from the Cordillera.
Again, when the Maute horror struck Marawi on May 23, it was a Baguio boy who spilled the first blood on the battlefield. Police Senior Inspector Freddie Manuel Solar wanted to become a lawyer before a bullet took away that dream. He was executed by the enemies when captured.
Philippine Army Scout Ranger Corp. Benito Serrano became a war casualty the very next day. He was from far Conner in Apayao.
A little over two weeks after, on June 9, a native of Barlig, Mount Province, became the third Cordilleran, to lose his life in the battle. Marine officer Private First Class Gener Tinangag was shot by a sniper as he pulled to safety a third wounded soldier after saving two of their fighters.
Another SAF officer, PO3 Alexis Mangaldan from Bangued, Abra, was taken down by enemy bullets on July 22, as the fourth from the region claimed by the bloody Maute siege in Mindanao. He had chosen to stay in Zamboanga, where his wife is from and where he was studying law at the Mindanao State University.
There remain several families in these mountains fearing for the lives of their loved ones fighting it out with the Maute Group in Marawi.
One of them is Gen. Alexander Macario, who portrayed again that natives of highlanders are brave hearts. Macario is head of the Philippine Army’s Light Reaction Regiment and hails from La Trinidad, the Benguet municipality adjacent to Baguio City.