KARAPATAN: Marcos, AFP are war criminals
KARAPATAN Public Information
PRESS RELEASE
24 April 2026
Reference: Cristina Palabay, KARAPATAN secretary general, 09173162831
KARAPATAN Public Information Desk, 09189790580
KARAPATAN: Marcos, AFP are war criminals
In a protest action today at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City, KARAPATAN denounced the Marcos Jr. regime’s recent war crimes in Negros with the reported killing of at least 19 individuals in Toboso town.
Among those reportedly killed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines is Roger Fabillar of the New People’s Army, farmer Roel Sabillo, community journalist and youth leader RJ Ledesma, University of the Philippines student leader Alyssa Alano, young peasant organizer Maureen Keil Santuyo, and cultural worker and peasant organizer Errol Wendel. Initial reports indicate that Fabillar’s body bore several gunshot wounds, while Sabillo, Ledesma, Alano, Santuyo and Errol Wendel are civilians.
“Whether they are civilians or combatants, the sheer number of those killed triggers significant questions and conclusions on the conduct of the AFP operations. The military’s use of disproportionate and excessive force, the seeming failure to undertake measures to avoid or minimize deaths, the one-day media black-out, and varying reports on places of incidents and recovered firearms. The possibility that the military committed a massacre, a war crime, including in the context of an armed confrontation, should be investigated,” said Palabay.
Such conclusion, Palabay said, is not farfetched considering the bloody record of the AFP, especially in Negros. KARAPATAN documented at least 52 individuals, majority are peasants and farmworkers, killed in Negros from July 2022 to December 2025, under the Marcos administration. At least 13 persons were killed in massacres in Negros, including the following:
• On July 26, 2022 at 5:30 AM, elements of 62nd Infantry Battalion, under the 303rd Infantry Brigade and members of the Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit (CAFGU) fired at the house of the Jacolbe family in Sitio Natuling, Barangay Budlasan, Canlaon City, Negros Oriental. Killed in the incident are daycare teacher Christina Sandot Jacolbe, pregnant at the time of her death; her 16-year-old daughter, Grade 11 student Everly Kee Jacolbe and Roldan Montero, a family friend.
In media interviews, Brig. Gen. Inocencio Pasaporte,commander of the 303rd Infantry Brigade and the mother unit of the 62"d Infantry Battalion, admitted that there are three casualties in an alleged encounter, and accused the victims as members of the NPA.
• On June 14, 2023, at about 10:00 p.m., gunshots were heard throughout Sitio Kangkiling, Barangay Buenavista, Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental, and residents saw the sprawled bodies of farmers Roly Fausto, 52, and his wife Emelda Fausto, 51, members of Baclayan, Bito, Cabagal Farmers and Farmworkers Association (BABICAFA). Their two sons, who were with them inside the house are Ben Fausto, 14, and Ravin Fausto, 11. According to local human rights groups, Roly and Emelda were subjected to continuous harassment from soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in the months before they were killed.
• On September 21, 2023, around 7:50 PM at Sitio Lubi, Brgy. Tabugon, Kabankalan City, soldiers of the 47th Infantry Battalion indiscriminately fired at a tricycle full of passengers. All people on board were killed. The 47th IBPA later released a statement that the unit of the AFP had an armed clash with members of the New People's Army in Brgy. Tabugon and killed 6 NPA members.
After a day, the Armando Sumayang Jr Command of the New People's Army Southwest Negros Guerrilla Front strongly condemned the massacre of its medical personnel, a rebel couple on medical leave, and a tricycle driver. The six who were killed are Ka Rekoy (Bobby Pedro), Ka Goring (Mario Mullon) and Ka Joyce (Janice Flores) who were medical personnel of the NPA; Ka Bravo (Alejo delos Reyes) and wife Ka Diane (Melissa dela Peña) who was six months pregnant; and the tricycle driver Ruben de la Cruz Gaitan. Gaitan’s wife disputed the AFP's claim that her husband was an NPA member, and stated that he worked for the Southern Negros Development Corp. (Sonedco), a sugar mill operating in Kabankalan City, and only drives the tricycle as part-time work.
“Marcos’ National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) Executive Committee recently met to perhaps affirm its strategy of spreading terror in communities through massacres and killings, bombings and indiscriminate firing, torture and enforced disappearances, red-tagging and other grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law,” Palabay commented.
KARAPATAN renewed its call to hold Marcos Jr. and the AFP accountable for the Negros 19 massacre as the rights group also demanded the immediate pull-out of military troops in rural and urban communities.
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KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties. It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign. It was established in 1995.