APCHRP: Innocent teenagers continue to die as the Marcos Jr. regime’s militarization of the countryside intensifies
Before the turn of the new year, the murderous Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) stationed in Masbate province killed two minors in Brgy. Paguihaman, Uson town of the said province. In the wee hours of Friday, 27 December, Redjan Montealegre (18) and JP Osabel (14) were on their way home from a Christmas party when they were shot by elements of the AFP, resulting in their immediate deaths. The military have also admitted their hand in the slaying of the two teenagers, falsely claiming that they were child fighters of the New People’s Army (NPA).
This is not the first time the military killed a minor in Masbata province maliciously accusing them as a member of the New People’s Army. Last 16 June, 17-year old Rey Belan was mercilessly killed by the AFP’s 2nd Infantry Battalion, who opened fire on him along with his companions while they were out hunting. As with Montealegre and Osabel, the military also accused Belan of being an NPA combatant and that his death came after an alleged “encounter” between the AFP and the revolutionary forces.
The fate of these three Masbateño teenagers is the grim reality of the Filipino people in the countryside, who are finding themselves terrorized by the AFP’s bloodlust, misguided and counter-insurgency campaign against the NPA. The eagerness of the military to kill people they suspect are combatants or even sympathizers of the NPA has led to countless innocent lives lost. Redjan Montealegre and JP Osabel are the latest names to be added to that morbid list.
Philippine provinces are in de facto Martial Law, as the AFP steps up their campaign to end the 56 years of armed conflict in the country- driven by the Marcos Jr. regime’s desperation to make itself attractive to Filipino voters before 2025. Violations of human rights intensifies and the legitimate demands of the Filipino people for land, jobs and social service is quelled with tyranny and fascism. As President Bongbong Marcos Jr.’s administration struggles to deal with a high cost of living, a high level of underemployment and a weakening Philippine peso, they have to project “success” elsewhere – their draconian and misguided “counterinsurgency” program is one such measure they are looking to improve.
The Asia Pacific Coalitions for Human Rights in the Philippines (APCHRP) has condemned the AFP for their responsibility in the deaths of the two Masbate teenagers. We also demand that the Marcos Jr. regime and the AFP be held accountable for their violations of international humanitarian law. His government’s futile and misguided “counterinsurgency” campaign, supported by the United States government, is wasting the country’s coffer depriving ordinary Filipinos of much needed basic social services. According to data from Karapatan, from July 2022 to June 2024, there have been 27 victims of extrajudicial killings in the Bicol region alone; there have also been 42,426 victims of forced evacuation caused by bombing, strafing, and heightened militarization in the Philippines.
The APCHRP also expresses its condolences to the families of the victims and calls on international communities and other human rights organizations to expose these egregious acts and continue mobilizing their respective communities and networks in demanding justice for all victims of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. For these violations of IHL to cease, the AFP must withdraw from the countryside given their bloody human rights record in the Philippine provinces. Rather than the senseless and indiscriminate killing, bombing and harassment of innocent Filipino civilians the Philippine government should instead address the root causes of armed conflict in the country: poverty, landlessness, the lack of employment opportunities and the continued pillaging of the country’s natural resources and ancestral domains by foreign multinational corporations. ###
For reference: Sister Patricia Fox, APCHRP spokesperson
