San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza reiterated his call to the national government to stop implementing what he calls as pro-death “Oplan Sauron” and Synchronized Enhanced Management Police Operations (SEMPO) that started in Negros Island in 2019.
“It is never Christian to kill. We ask our brothers and sisters to pray that the God of Peace reign, not the Dark Lord, Sauron,” Alminaza said in his open letter to Duterte and Sinas.

He stressed that ”history and our faith teach us that systematic violence and killings can never lead us to the path of peace and only through addressing the roots of the conflict, integral development and dialogue that lasting peace be achieved.”
He said the word “Sauron”, which refers to a fictional character in J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel “The Lord of the Rings”, means “the abhorred” or “the abominable”, is directed against the perceived enemies of the state.
In December 2018, six people were killed and 26 were arrested in the towns of Guihulngan, Mabinay, and Sta. Catalina in Negros Oriental, for allegedly being in possession of firearms and explosives, Alminaza recalled.
Alminaza added that 14 more farmers suspected as members of the New People’s Army also died in March 2019 during the simultaneous implementation of Oplan Sauron in different cities and towns of Negros Oriental.
He said the death of the farmers was justified by Sinas, then regional police director of Central Visayas, as legitimate police operations.
The same pattern of SEMPO was implemented on Dec. 30 in Tapaz, Capiz that claimed the lives of nine Tumandok tribe members and mass arrest of 17 others, suspected as NPA members, the bishop said.
“We are alarmed as these recent killings in Capiz demonstrate how Oplan Sauron and Sempo will be implemented throughout the country,” Alminaza said.
These operations were carried out mostly during wee hours and the farmers were shot under unproven claims that they fought it out, he added.
“Whether this is true or not, what is starkly apparent is that this violence has failed to bring lasting peace and instead bred a culture of even more violence and disrespect for our people,” the bishop added.
Under the Duterte administration and Oplan Sauron alone, there are now over 106 cases of unsolved extrajudicial killings recorded in Negros island, Alminaza said.
The NPA Leonardo Panaligan Command also condemned the synchronized police and military operations in Capiz and Iloilo.
Rebel spokesperson Ka JB Regalado said the incident took place as the death of 20 civilians in Oplan Sauron campaign of the PNP and AFP in Negros Oriental in December 2018 and March 2019 remains unresolved, as of this time. –GB