Six of 19 killed in the April 19 Toboso encounter were known civilian peasant advocates and organizers, directly contradicting the military's narrative that all of the dead were combatants, a national fact-finding and solidarity mission (NFSM) said on Friday, May 15.
Witness testimonies showed that the six were RJ Ledesma, Alyssa Alano, Errol Wendel, Maureen Santuyo, Lyle Prijoles, and Kai Sorem, Deputy Secretary General of Karapatan Sol Taule said at a press conference in Bacolod City.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines has maintained that the 19 were killed in a legitimate encounter with members of the New People’s Army.
More than 100 human rights workers, Makabayan lawmakers, church workers, and activists joined the fact-finding and solidarity mission in Sitio Sinugmawan and Sitio Plaringding in Brgy. Salamanca in Toboso on May 14, Taule said.
Taule said there is a high probability that the crime scene was tampered with and there was planting of evidence.
Based also on the photos, some of the victims were lying on their backs, while forensic pathologist Dr. Raquel Fortun found gunshot wounds on the backs and sides of some of the victims, Taule also said.
There was clearly mishandling of the bodies with the switch of Errol Wendel to another person, she said.
They also found the Philippine military liable for terrorizing farming communities in Negros Occidental following the Toboso incident on April 19, Taule said in a press statement.
Through documented eyewitness testimonies, the mission found that soldiers forcibly used civilian homes as military encampments, harassed and intimidated residents in the name of counter-insurgency operations, restricted farming activities, caused indiscriminate firing near homes, carried out illegal detention, and allegedly used a farmer as a human shield, she said.
Taule also claimed that members of the mission themselves experienced various forms of harassment during the conduct of the investigation.
Delegates reported being tailed by a suspicious individual on a motorcycle who was seen taking photographs of the convoy’s vehicles, she said.
During a courtesy call at the Barangay Hall of Barangay Salamanca, around five unidentified individuals were also observed openly photographing the delegates, raising serious concerns over surveillance and intimidation aimed at obstructing independent human rights documentation efforts, she added.
Taule also said Sadie Stone, an American pastor and member of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP), was disallowed entry into the Philippines for being blacklisted, allegedly for participating in “political activities” in 2016.
Stone was supposed to join the National Fact-Finding and Solidarity Mission.
“The mission strongly condemns these deplorable acts, alongside the military’s continued denial of massacring non-combatants,” Taule said.
The mission calls for accountability from the AFP, an end to the militarization in Negros, and justice for all victims in the Negros 19 massacre. Kristina Conti of the National Union of People’s Lawyers said there are rules under Philippine law and International Humanitarian Law that were violated based on the fact-finding mission.
One of these is the involvement in the killing of civilians. Some of the dead died not from bullet wounds but allegedly bled to death, she said.
ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. Antonio Tinio, who joined the mission, said they condemn the Toboso incident and are calling for justice, an investigation, the resumption of peace talks with the NPA, and a focus on the root causes of the conflict.*
[sibwp_form id=1]