Leonido Nabong aka “Ka Charo” comes home
“He was the favorite of our parents because he was very intelligent. He always got the biggest share of the food on the table, a gesture that Nido resented very much,” his younger sister Chona said.[]
Aaron Nabong, younger brother of Leonido Nabong spoke of the family life of the 1976 Magna Cum Laude graduate of Agriculture at the Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro joined the New People’s Army in the late 1970s. He was killed in an encounter in Tampilisan, Zamboanga del Norte on November 13, 2020 and was brought home to Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental on November 18. He was buried on November 20. MindaNews photo by FROILAN GALLARDO
His classmates from Xavier University sent flowers and on their Facebook posts, admired how he took the difficult path to help change society.
After his college graduation, he worked in a banana plantation in the Davao region before joining the NPA.
“I won’t forget him and at the same time I will always know where he was,” Arthur Guerzon, Nabong’s best friend, said.
Raymond Toledo, a fellow Atenean, wrote: “To lay down one’s life for one’s principles and for the least of God’s brothers and sisters. Only a giant would be capable of such an act. The Xavier / Ateneo community should honor him. Salamat kaayo, Ka Charo.”
Because of COVID-19 restrictions, only a handful of Nabong’s former comrades came to the parangal.
With a wreath from the National Democratic Front, his former comrades described him as “the rock star of the guerilla movement.”
“The children would be very excited when Ka Charo would come by our village. They always wanted to talk to him because he was always nice to them,” a former rebel said.
According to the former rebels, after the peace talks with the late President Corazon Aquino failed, Nabong was reassigned from Misamis Oriental to Front Monterosa, a guerilla front that straddles Mount Malindang in the tri-boundaries of Misamis Occidental, Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur.
Aaron Nabong, younger brother of Leonido Nabong spoke of the family life of the 1976 Magna Cum Laude graduate of Agriculture at the Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro joined the New People’s Army in the late 1970s. He was killed in an encounter in Tampilisan, Zamboanga del Norte on November 13, 2020 and was brought home to Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental on November 18. He was buried on November 20. MindaNews photo by FROILAN GALLARDO
A former rebel who fetched his remains said Nabong was the only one killed in the ten-man NPA unit that the soldiers engaged in Barangay ZNAC, Tampilisan town, last Friday.
He said Nabong was already suffering from arthritis, a swelling in his joints and had to be attended by a nurse.[]
“He could not run anymore. That is why I was not surprised he was the only casualty in his squad. He probably ordered everyone to leave him when the soldiers came,” he said.
