๐ท: Jerlyn Rose Doydora |PLM College of Education Student Council FB
A youth researcher from Manila, Jerlyn Rose Doydora, was killed on New Yearโs Day following aerial bombardment by the Philippine Armyโs 203rd Infantry Brigade in Abra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro, according to the National Democratic Front-Mindoro (NDF)-Mindoro.
The NDF said the military launched airstrikes from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on January 1, hours after combined forces of the 1st and 76th Infantry Battalions and the 5th Scout Ranger Battalion attempted an attack against a New Peopleโs Army (NPA) unit in Sitio Mamara, Barangay Cabacao.
The group described the operation as โindiscriminate bombingโ that endangered civilians celebrating the New Year.
Doydora, who joined other youth volunteers in Mindoro to conduct interviews and live among farmers and indigenous communities, reportedly suffered a fatal attack during the bombardment.
Another youth was separated during the retreat and remains missing.
The NDF said the NPA unit had accepted the groupโs request to observe and conduct research, and had been under ceasefire when the military assault occurred.
โTo ensure her family can recover her remains, the unit decided to lay her body in the area where she died,โ the statement read.
The NDF extended condolences to Doydoraโs family and called for the immediate suspension of AFP-PNP operations to allow retrieval of her remains.
It urged human rights advocates and civic groups to press for a humanitarian corridor and to investigate the impact of the three-hour bombing on affected communities.
โJerlyn Rose Doydora is a martyr of her generation, a youth who sought genuine solutions to the peopleโs suffering,โ the NDF said, adding that her death highlights the risks faced by civilians amid intensified counterinsurgency operations in Mindoro. (RRN)
