THE remains of a Negrense soldier who was among the 10 killed in a government airstrike in Marawi City, Lanao del Sur last week arrived home over the weekend.
Colonel Eliezer Lozañes, commander of 303rd Infantry Brigade based in Murcia, Negros Occidental, said that fallen trooper Sergeant Joseph Villanueva of 15th Infantry Battalion based in Lanao del Norte was accorded with arrival honors when his remains arrived at the Bacolod-Silay Airport in Silay City Saturday night, June 3.
His body was then brought home to Barangay Puso, La Castellana, Negros Occidental.
Failure of communication was pointed out as a reason for the botched airstrike, which killed 10 soldiers and wounded eight others.
A board of inquiry will be investigating the cause of the incident.
Villanueva was the second Negrense to be killed in the ongoing battle between the government forces and the Maute bandits.
The first was Second Lieutenant McGlen Abuyabor of Bais City, Negros Oriental, who was killed by a sniper. (MPE)