APCHRP: Justice for the Toboso 19! End the militarisation of Negros Island and address the root causes of the revolution instead.
The Asia Pacific Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (APCHRP) vehemently condemns the military operations conducted in Toboso, Negros Occidental province last April 19 that resulted in the death of 19 individuals and the mass displacement of civilian residents. These acts of violence were conducted by the 79th Infantry Battalion (IB) of the Philippine Army, and constitute grave violations of international humanitarian law. We denounce these vicious human rights abuses and hold the regime of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., and its imperialist U.S. backers, accountable for the fatalities and displacement of civilians.
The island of Negros has long been a hotbed of human rights abuses by the mercenary Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Their recent act of war conducted last April 19 was merely another episode in the military’s long history of atrocities committed in the island. Residents of Brgy. Salamanca, Toboso town in Negros Occidental province were subjected to indiscriminate bombings and aerial strafing that caused disruption to their lives as well as civilian casualties. Among those killed were Alyssa Alano, a student leader from UP Diliman; Rj Ledesma, a community journalist; Maureen Keil Santuyo, a peasant organizer; Errol Wendel, a cultural worker and peasant organizer; Lyle Prijole, a Filipino-American human rights advocate; Kai Sorem, a youth activist and a cultural worker; and Roel Sabillio, a farmer. Their deaths were cruelly celebrated by the AFP, disdainfully posting photos of their bodies on social media. These acts constitute serious violations of international humanitarian law, particularly the protection of civilians and the prohibition against the desecration of the dead.
Furthermore, the AFP justifies their deaths by accusing these student leaders of being combatants with the New People’s Army (NPA). In reality, these individuals were merely integrating within rural communities in the countryside to learn of their plight and gather facts regarding the struggles of impoverished rural areas, particularly among peasants. While there were confirmed members of the NPA killed in these operations, there is no evidence to suggest that Alano, Ledesma, Santuyo, Prijole, Sorem and Sabillio were combatants themselves. They were civilians who were mercilessly killed by the military and disrespectfully accused of being combatants themselves. These incidents form part of a broader pattern of violence in Negros.
According to KARAPATAN, at least 52 individuals were killed in the province between July 2022 and December 2025. Among the notable cases include the massacre of nine farmers in Sagay town in October 2018, and the subsequent assassination of the human rights lawyer representing their families, Atty. Ben Ramos of NUPL, only a few weeks later in November. Zara Alvarez, a community organiser and human rights defender, was also mercilessly killed in August 2020 as she was walking back home. These killings are all linked to the implementation of Memorandum Order No. 32 (M.O. 32) under the former Duterte administration, which the current Marcos regime happily continued. The Memorandum ordered the heavy militarisation of Negros Island under the guise of “counter-insurgency”, but which has only proven to exacerbate human rights abuses in the resource-rich island.
These human rights violations in Negros do not exist in a vacuum; they are rooted in decades of exploitation of the peasantry, and to protect the interests of big landlords who control the resources of this resource-rich island, while leaving many farmers landless. Peasants in the Negros are enduring severe hardship due to this landlessness. Of the island’s total 1.3 million hectares of land, 63 percent is privately owned, and 80 percent of the land measuring 10 hectares or more is controlled by only around 24 percent of landlords.
Agricultural workers in the sugar industry receive extremely low wages and have little to no access to adequate aid or support from the government. Meanwhile, large corporations and billionaire families – such as the Cojuangcos, Razon, Ayala-Zobel, Aboitiz, Consunji, Sy, and Pangilinan families – control a significant share of Negros’ wealth and resources.
The Asia Pacific Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines holds the U.S.-Marcos regime and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) accountable for these war crimes. The violence they inflict on civilian activists merely echoing the cries of landless peasants and impoverished families in the countries, only fuels the ongoing revolution further. The ongoing conflict in Negros and the rest of the country can never be solved by warfare, but only through genuine agrarian reform. The U.S.-Marcos Jr. regime owes a great debt to the people of Negros – blood has been spilled from their very land to protect elite interests.
The APCHRP calls for justice for all victims of violence in Negros and extends its deepest sympathies to the families of those who were killed in the most recent war crimes committed in Toboso, Negros Occidental. It also calls on the international community and all peace advocates across the Asia-Pacific to continue exposing and opposing the violence inflicted by the Marcos regime on the people. We reiterate our call for the immediate withdrawal of military forces from the countryside, where their presence continues to disrupt livelihoods and intimidate peasant communities, and for the Marcos Jr. administration to address the root causes of the ongoing revolution instead.
#HandsOffNegros #JusticeForAlyssaAlano #JusticeForRJLedesma #JusticeForErronWendel #JusticeForMaureenSantuyo #JusticeForKaiSorem #JusticeForLylePrijole #JusticeForNegros19
