• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The deaths of two American nationals and two minors in the Toboso gunbattles in Negros Occidental indicates a shift in the recruitment practices of the New People’s Army, an official of the National Task Force To End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) said.
The April 19 armed encounter claimed the lives of Lyle Prijoles and Kai Dana-Rene Sorem, who are affiliated with Bayan-USA and Anakbayan-USA, both reported by NTF-ELCAC to have links to the local communist movement.
“Their deaths underscore how individuals from outside the country are now being drawn into local armed hostilities,” NTF-ELCAC executive director Ernesto Torres Jr. said in a statement.
Also among those killed in the same encounter, as identified in the Philippine National Police investigation and validated by their claimant-relatives, were two minors, Jolinda Jimena, 16, and Dexter Patoja, 17. Torres said that their presence in a combat environment highlights the grave risks faced by young individuals who become involved in armed conflict.
In a separate incident in Samar on April 17, another minor identified as alias “John Paul” was killed during an armed encounter, based on the report of the Philippine Army’s 8th Infantry Division.
This brings to three the number of minors killed in combat within the same period.
Torres said the involvement of foreign nationals alongside minors points to a widening recruitment scope that extends beyond traditional local bases and into more vulnerable sectors.
Aside from University of the Philippines-Dilliman student activist Alyssa Alano and community journalist RJ Ledesma, also died in the encounter as confirmed by the UP Open University was its Associate of Arts student Maureen Keil Santuyo.
Torres said the presence of foreign nationals in these encounters further indicates that recruitment efforts have expanded beyond Philippine borders, exposing individuals from the diaspora to the dangers of armed confrontation on the ground.
These developments suggest increasing pressure on the movement to sustain its ranks, reflected in a shift toward drawing from sectors that are either geographically distant or inherently vulnerable, he added.
In a statement, human rights group Karapatan claimed that Julie Ann Balora, a member of the national council of the National Federation of Sugar Workers- Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura, one of the five arrested persons recently in Talisay City, debunked claims that they owned the two bags recovered by authorities, which allegedly containing guns and explosives.
The Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives filed a resolution, asking the committee on human rights to conduct an inquiry on the Toboso incident. | GB
