Renato Ganchero

“ When Marcos declared Martial Law, my brother took his campaign to the forested mountains of Iloilo. His heart more inflamed with the certainty that only through armed struggle the dictatorship could be toppled. I have no recollection of anyone in the family opposing his decision to join the New People's Army or telling him that his idealism is misplaced or misguided. . . According to my siblings, my brother visited our house several times after he left for the mountains. They were furtive visits that most often required the cover of darkness or disguise. . .. He was dealing with a serious world with its sharp and rough edges and fatal blows. . . We moved to a different house the following year after Martial Law. As far as I know, my brother never set foot in the new address. When he finally did, he was already boxed in an ornate copper colored and metallic sheened wooden coffin. The (light blue?) shirt he was dressed with for his eternal repose effectively covered the bullet wounds that, per what I have heard from my other siblings, ran diagonally across his body. They said he was in an encounter against the military and sustained the fatal shots. This was told to me later on with deep sadness and a tinge of uncertainty. The real circumstance of his death have been put to question by human rights advocates who expressed cover-up on the military's account of the incident. There were witnesses who reported that he was captured alive by the government forces first then summarily executed. Whatever version is real, none can question his loyalty to the cause of dismantling an oppressive regime. And that the once officer of his high school ROTC bravely sacrificed his life for his beliefs. He was six months shy of his twenty first birthday. “

Excerpts from http://blueganchero.blogspot.com/2010/10/candle-in-wind.html)