Family of fallen soldier tries to cope with loss

LANAO DE SUR, Philippines — The parents of a Scout Ranger killed while pulling out soldiers from armored vehicles crippled with rockets by terrorists in Marawi City lost a provider helping them live through each day.

The 70-year-old Flordeliza, mother of Pfc. Elmer Bueno of the Army's Scout Ranger Regiment, washes clothes and cleans the kitchens of neighbors in Alamada town in North Cotabato in exchange for food and small amounts of cash to augment the money his son remits for their subsistence and maintenance medicines.

“The late Elmer did not know about the part-time work of our mother. It was kept from him. My mom did not want to cause him too much burden,” Elesa, Bueno’s older sister, told The STAR on Saturday.

Bueno’s ailing father, Wilfredo, now 87, said they lost a thoughtful and caring son who provided help that made them live through each day.

“Now his mother and me are helpless. He was our provider,” Wilfredo said in Hiligaynon dialect.

Elesa, 38, said her parents were long at odd over financial support issues with Bueno’s spouse, Jean, who hails from the Visayas.

Bueno and his wife are childless.

“I do not know how my parents can overcome the foreseeable hardships they surely will experience soon with Elmer gone. Life would be so hard for them,” Elesa said.

Elesa's two other brothers, Eduardo and Ernesto, are both lowly farmers whose harvests are just enough to feed their impoverished families.

“I also have my family to feed, also a poor family. Elmer was a good provider to our parents whose needs we can hardly provide,” Elesa said

Elesa said she is thankful to North Cotabato Vice Gov. Shirlyn Macasarte-Villanueva for extending assistance to her parents when she learned that Bueno’s cadaver had been transported to Alamada.

Bueno was killed by Maute gunmen while he and other Scout Rangers were trying to rescue personnel of the 5th Mechanized Battalion from inside their V-150 and Simba combat vehicles that were damaged by rockets and shoulder-fire grenades.

The two vehicles were attacked by terrorists while maneuvering through enemy positions on May 23, the first day of the hostilities in Marawi City.

It took Bueno’s team two days to breach through the three layers of defense cordon the terrorists laid around the damaged V-150 and Simba vehicles.

Bueno was gunned down by a terrorist sniper while firing a rifle towards an enemy position to provide cover for the soldiers they have pulled out of the combat vehicles.

Four other soldiers from North Cotabato, who belonged to different Army units, also perished in encounters in Marawi City with Maute and Abu Sayyaf gunmen from between May 23 to May 27.

The families of the fatalities, 1Lt. John Carl Morales and Sgt. Marlon Baldovino, both from Kabacan, Sgt. Eric Coros of Libungan and Cpl. Angelo Estores, Jr. of Pikit, shall receive cash assistance, along with Bueno’s parents, from North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Talino-Mendoza.

North Cotabato’s Kabacan town is located in the 3rd district of the province. 

Libungan, Pikit and Alamada are all in the 1st congressional district of North Cotabato.

“We in the provincial board have drafted a resolution citing their acts of heroism and condoling with their respective families,” said Macasarte-Villanueva, who is presiding chairperson of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.

"They died for others to live," the vice governor added.