A SCOUT ranger from Sipalay City, Negros Occidental died in battle against the Maute rebels in Marawi City on Tuesday, July 25.
The death of Private First Class Ramonito Occeña III, 27, was confirmed by his mother in an interview with Aksyon Radyo Bacolod on Wednesday.
Occeña’s mother said she received the report through an Army liaison officer, but didn’t have details on how he died.
The Negrense soldier was first injured last June 4. He was one of the wounded soldiers visited by President Rodrigo Duterte in a hospital.
He later decided to return to the war-torn city.
The remains of the fallen soldier will arrive in his hometown on Thursday, July 27.
Occeña was the second fatality from Negros Occidental.
Staff Sergeant Joseph Villanueva of the 15th Infantry Battalion, a resident of Barangay Puso, La Castellana town, was among the 10 soldiers killed in a government airstrike last May 31. (GYM)