BLOODY KILLINGS CONTINUE UNDER MARCOS JR. ADMINISTRATION! STOP THE ATTACKS!
A few weeks before Ferdinand Marcos Jr. enters his first year in office, the barbaric and brutal massacre of the Filipino people continues. On the night June 14, alleged state forces ransacked the home of Fausto family in Barangay Buenavista, Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental and massacred peasant woman Emelda (49), her two children Ben (15) and Raben (11), while her husband, Rolly, was found lifeless in a nearby sugarcane field.
Emelda was a member of the Baklayan, Bito, Cabagal Farmers Association (BABICAFA) and was red-tagged by military agents as a supporter of the New People’s Army in their area. This pattern of red tagging has persistently been used in the military’s counter-insurgency tactics to justify the murder and massacre of ordinary Filipinos asserting their human rights and legitimate demands. This has to stop, Filipinos have every right to demand rights, land and jobs that could alleviate themselves from the shackles of poverty and misery.
Militarization in Negros has not stopped since the imposition of Memorandum Order No. 32 (brief explanation of EO 32) under Duterte’s tyrannical rule. Marcos Jr, like his father and predecessor, continues this pattern of bloody killings to suppress the legitimate grievances of farmers, agricultural workers, and other oppressed sectors for their right to land and life. According to the data by the Student Christian Movement of the Philippines (SCMP), 38 human rights violations have been recorded in Negros in March and April 2023, a glaring record of prevalent state of impunity that continues under the Marcos Jr. administration.
APCHRP urges the Marcos Jr. government to stop the militarization of the Negros island and attacks against farmers and farmworkers asserting their rights for land, rights and decent lives. We further demand justice for the Fausto family and that the Armed Forces of the Philippines be held accountable for their brutal and barbaric acts against the Filipino people they are supposed to protect.
Marcos Jr. should remember that genuine unity will not be achieved for as long as soldiers continue to massacre marginalized and unarmed civilians, for as long as his administration remains untouched for the Filipino people’s call just and humane society.
