• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
As a full-blown investigation is being pushed in the House of Representatives on the death of 19 individuals April 19 in Toboso, Negros Occidental, two groups are also calling for a probe on the killings of about 45 civilians in Negros Island since 2025.
These victims were often tagged as “military spies” by the New People’s Army, which claimed responsibility for the killings.
The Buklod Kapayapaan Federation Inc. (BKFI), a national federation of former rebels and people’s organizations advocating for peace and development, said the victims include 11 farmers, 10 former and active barangay officials, and 16 residents 50 years old and above, since January 2025.
The oldest victim was 74-year-old Leonora “Leonor” Anguit, who was killed Feb. 3 in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental.
The BKFI and the Center for Collaborative Solutions (CCS), a people’s organization in Escalante City, called on all concerned agencies to conduct a full, impartial, and immediate investigation into these series of killings in Negros, and to provide protection to threatened civilians, former rebels, barangay officials, and vulnerable sectors.
There is a need to strengthen mechanisms for peaceful grievance resolution so that communities are not trapped between fear, violence, and impunity, the groups stressed.
Edito Namion of CCS, in a statement, said that communities are already fed up by the series of summary killings being carried out under the guise of the so-called “revolutionary justice.”
It is in this context that residents reportedly decided to reveal the location of the armed personnel of the NPA’s SPARU (Special Partisan Armed Unit), led by Roger Fabillar alias Jong, leader of the Northern Negros Front, which resulted in armed encounters April 19, he added.
Majority of the killings owned up by Fabillar and his group took place in northern Negros, from January 2025 to April this year.
“CCS continues to support the call for accountability and protection for affected communities,” Namion said as he stressed that no individual or armed group has the right to act as judge, jury, and executioner. “Branding civilians as spies or informants, then killing them without trial, is a gross violation of human rights.”
The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), meanwhile, welcomed proposals for a congressional inquiry into the April 19 encounter in Toboso, stressing that it should be anchored on evidence, objectivity, and the commitment to truth.
It is also important to approach these legislative exercises with clarity of context, it added.
Negros Occidental 3rd District Rep. Javier Miguel Benitez and the Makabayan Bloc in the House of Representatives separately filed resolutions, pushing for the conduct of an inquiry, in aid of legislation, into the Toboso killings.
In House Resolution 968, Benitez noted that conflicting and opposing public narratives have emerged, with varying assertions attributing responsibility for the incident to both deceased individuals and members of the Philippine Army, necessitating an impartial investigation to establish an accurate account of the facts.
Undersecretary Ernesto Torres Jr., NTF-ELCAC executive director, said that any inquiry on the Toboso encounter, in the pursuit of “balanced narratives”, should not lead to false equivalence between State forces operating under the Constitution and armed groups that function outside the rule of law.
“We also caution against turning such inquiries into venues for political theater or narrative manipulation. The loss of life in Toboso is a serious matter. It should not be reduced to competing soundbites, or used to advance positions that disregard the realities on the ground,” Torres stressed in a statement. “The Filipino people deserve a clear and honest accounting that is rooted in facts, respects institutions, and upholds the rule of law.” | GB
