📷: Courtesy of Kabataan Alliance | IG
The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) has called for an independent investigation into the April 19 killings in Toboso, Negros Occidental, rejecting what it described as the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) “scripted narrative” and warning of a continuing pattern of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) violations.
In a statement, the NUPL accused Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, Jr. of echoing the Army’s “self-serving narrative” when he questioned the presence of students and civilians in the community.
Teodoro’s remarks, the group said, presumed that the poor and those who stand with them “have no legitimate place in the communities where structural violence is daily life.”
The AFP’s 79th Infantry Battalion claimed all 19 individuals killed in the firefights were armed members of the New People’s Army (NPA). The NPA, however, admitted that only three of the dead were its members.
“The identities of the others tell a different story: UP Diliman student leader Alyssa Alano; peasant advocates Maureen Keil Santuyo and Errol Wendel; community journalist RJ Nichole Ledesma, who was reportedly conducting immersion reporting on the impact of solar farm and windmill projects on farming communities in a separate sitio; Filipino-American activist Lyle Prijoles; and several villagers,” the NUPL said.
“Their presence in Toboso was a conscious act of solidarity with communities facing landgrabbing, systemic neglect, and the grinding poverty that decades of counterinsurgency have done nothing to address,” the group added.
The NUPL questioned the military’s adherence to IHL principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution, noting that the clashes left 19 dead and displaced more than 650 residents, with no reported military casualties.
“What does proportionality mean when a firefight ends with no military casualties and 19 dead civilians and alleged combatants alike?” the group asked.
The statement also criticized AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Romeo Brawner, Jr.’s remarks distinguishing US citizen Chantal Anicoche from Alano, pointing out that humanitarian workers were denied access to Anicoche despite claims of humane treatment.
The NUPL alleged that the military has a record of staging scenes, manipulating narratives, and even mocking the dead in social media posts, citing past incidents of doctored photos and degrading portrayals of slain individuals.
Human rights groups including Karapatan have launched a fact-finding mission in Toboso. The NUPL said it awaits the findings but emphasized that “no military press release can obscure” the need for rigorous, independent scrutiny.
It rejected any investigation led by the AFP or the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), which it described as mandated to justify military operations rather than examine them.
“We call for accountability — not just for those who pulled the trigger, but for those who ordered, tolerated, and concealed the killings,” the NUPL declared, urging the international community to monitor the case closely.
The group underscored that the Toboso incident is “not isolated” but part of a continuing pattern of violations across the countryside.# (ZIA LUNA)
