• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The Philippine Army’s 3rd Infantry Division (3ID) has linked at least 43 killings in northern Negros to the group of slain New People’s Army (NPA) leader Roger Fabillar Tapang since 2021.
Maj. Gen. Michael Samson, commander of 3ID, said the victims were mostly civilians suspected by rebels of being military informants, former paramilitary unit members, and individuals considered obstacles to the group’s revolutionary activities.
Tapang was among the 19 rebels killed during the encounter with government troops in Barangay Salamanca, Toboso on April 19.
Samson said local government officials, including Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson, had appealed to the military to put an end to the killings that had spread fear among residents of Toboso, Calatrava, and Escalante City.
“Even the local government units and Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson personally requested me to stop the killings, which terrorized the people in Toboso, Calatrava, and Escalante City,” Samson said in a statement. “So we have a mandate to neutralize alias Jhong.”
Meanwhile, the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) described Negros Island as the epicenter of NPA-related “spy-tagging” killings.
NTF-ELCAC executive director Ernesto Torres Jr. said that 51 out of the 59 documented cases of alleged spy-tagging killings and summary executions nationwide attributed to the NPA from 2021 to May 2026 occurred in Negros Island.
Of the total, 49 were recorded in Negros Occidental.
Torres called on the Commission on Human Rights to also focus on killings allegedly committed by communist rebels.
“Human rights are not exclusive to armed rebels, activists, or ideological allies. Human rights belong equally to poor farmers, church workers, tricycle drivers, laborers, former rebels, barangay officials, and ordinary civilians murdered in remote communities,” Torres said.
Records of the NTF-ELCAC showed that of the 49 rebel-related killings documented in Negros from January 2025 to May 2026, 39 occurred in Negros Occidental while 10 were recorded in Negros Oriental. | GB
