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Cristina Chi - Philstar.com
April 23, 2026 | 4:13pm
MANILA, Philippines — Human rights and press freedom groups are calling for an independent probe into the killing of 19 people during a military operation in Toboso, Negros Occidental, after colleagues of a slain journalist and a former student leader said neither was armed nor at the initial clash site.
The Philippine Army has confirmed that soldiers of the 79th Infantry Battalion engaged alleged remnants of the New People's Army in Brgy. Salamanca on April 19, in a series of firefights that began before dawn.
There's yet to be a full and official list of names of those killed, and the identities that have emerged — a community journalist, a UP Diliman student council member, a farmer — have raised doubts among rights groups as to whether all those killed were actually combatants.
Negros Occidental has long been plagued by violence tied to land disputes and counterinsurgency operations, with past killings largely involving farmers and activists.
The Commission on Human Rights has yet to announce an independent probe into the incident.
The contradictions
Among those killed is community journalist RJ Ledesma, who is also regional coordinator of Altermidya Network.
The network says Ledesma was in Toboso doing immersion reporting on the effects of solar farm and windmill projects on farming communities when he was killed.
Human Rights Advocates Negros said Ledesma was not at the initial encounter in Sitio Sinugmawan. He was attacked in a separate peasant community in Sitio Plariding during a military pursuit operation, the group said.
Ledesma led Paghimutad-Negros, an alternative media outfit focused on human rights reporting and grassroots storytelling, since 2020. He had also been the seventh nominee of Kabataan Partylist in the 2022 elections.
As is typical of alternative news outfits reporting on human rights, Paghimutad-Negros had long been red-tagged. In October 2022, the 303rd Brigade's Facebook page called one of its reports "propaganda" and linked it to the National Democratic Front. The post circulated on police and military platforms.
Student leader among casualties
The UP Diliman University Student Council also confirmed that student Alyssa Alano, one of its current councilors, was also among the dead.
The council said Alano had been living among farmers in Negros to study conditions of land grabbing and militarization.
Meanwhile, a relative of farmer Roel Sebillo told Karapatan he was not a rebel. He had been working on his uncle's farm the day before the clash, according to a statement by Karapatan.
Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay called for "an urgent, independent, and impartial investigation."
Whether they are mere civilians or actual combatants, Palabay said, the "sheer number of those killed triggers significant questions on the conduct of the operations including use of proportionate force."
The incident also raises questions on whether there were "steps taken to minimize casualties," as well as the military's compliance with international humanitarian law and human rights, Palabay said.
She added: "The possibility that the military committed a massacre, including in the context of an armed confrontation, should be investigated."
Military defends operation
Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., when asked about the death of Alano in an ambush interview April 23, did not address the specific circumstances of the student's death.
He said instead that anyone found at an encounter site alongside armed groups could face prosecution for aiding and abetting, regardless of whether they were a combatant.
"Whether or not NPA 'yun, nandun sa enkwentro, you shouldn't be there in the first place when you know that they are armed terrorists," Teodoro said.
Under international humanitarian law, the presence of civilians near an armed encounter does not make them lawful targets. The distinction between combatants and non-combatants is a cornerstone of the Geneva Conventions, to which the Philippines is a signatory.
Army Chief Lt. Gen. Antonio Nafarrete, in a statement on April 20, commended the 79th Infantry Battalion and referred to all 19 dead as "CTG [communist terrorist group] members" who were "victims of lies and deception."
The long shadow over Negros
Deadly clashes followed by contested, even contrasting, narratives are not new to Negros.
In October 2018, nine sugarcane farmers were killed in Sagay City. A month later, then-President Rodrigo Duterte signed Memorandum Order 32, declaring a "state of lawless violence" in Negros, Samar, and Bicol and deploying additional troops.
Rights groups said the order deepened violence rather than curbing it.
In March 2019, 14 people were killed in simultaneous police raids across Negros Oriental, an incident that also drew condemnation from rights groups like Karapatan.
In 2022, peace consultant Ericson Acosta and companion Joseph Jimenez were killed in Kabankalan City, with their bodies later bearing stab wounds.
The military had claimed they died in an encounter, but human rights groups alleged they had been captured and executed.
