Negros killings: NTF-ELCAC urges CHR to probe NPA executions

By Glazyl M. Jopson

BACOLOD CITY — The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) urged the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to act on what it described as the summary execution of civilians by the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF).

The task force said 51 of 59 “spy-tagging” killings and summary executions it has documented nationwide and attributed to the CPP-NPA-NDF were recorded in the Negros Island Region (NIR).

The Negros total covers 41 cases in Negros Occidental and 10 in Negros Oriental from 2021 to May 2026, according to the NTF-ELCAC.

Of the 51 people killed in Negros over the past five years, 49 were killed between January 2025 and May 2026 — 39 in Negros Occidental and 10 in Negros Oriental.

The victims were farmers, laborers, tricycle drivers, barangay tanods, church workers, former rebels, Indigenous peoples’ leaders, former civilian auxiliary members, former barangay officials, senior citizens, and other civilians living in conflict-affected communities.

“This means that nearly nine out of every 10 victims recorded nationwide from 2025 to the present were killed in Negros, exposing it as the epicenter of the CPP-NPA-NDF’s campaign of terror against civilians accused of being ‘informants’ or condemned by their so-called ‘kangaroo courts,'” NTF-ELCAC Executive Director Ernesto Torres Jr. said in a statement.

Following an April 19 armed encounter in Toboso, Negros Occidental, at least four more civilians were killed in the province by NPA remnants, the task force said.

The four were Lindio Alvino, a 42-year-old civilian killed on April 22 in Sipalay City; Jemar Mahusay, a 53-year-old farmer killed on May 5 in Calatrava; Gerry Baitan, a 53-year-old farmer killed on May 13, also in Calatrava; and Joseph Agustin, a 38-year-old former rebel killed on May 19 in Binalbagan.

Among the cases cited by the task force was the killing of 74-year-old Leonora Anguit, a resident of Barangay Tapi in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, who was killed on Feb. 3, 2026 after being accused of being an “informant.”

Torres said the killing of civilians like Anguit, along with scores of others, shows how the communist movement uses fear and suspicion to maintain control over rural communities.

“This is the brutal reality the CPP-NPA-NDF and their front organizations, enablers and purveyors desperately try to conceal from the public,” the NTF-ELCAC said.

The NTF-ELCAC was created in 2018 under Executive Order No. 70 to coordinate the government’s campaign against the communist insurgency. The CHR is an independent body created by the 1987 Constitution and mandated to investigate human rights violations.

The task force has itself faced criticism from church groups and human rights organizations, which have accused it of “red-tagging,” or publicly labeling activists and government critics as communist supporters. The NTF-ELCAC has rejected those accusations.

The task force said the CHR should demand accountability and stand with the victims and their families rather than allow the killings to be obscured by propaganda.

“The CHR must no longer remain selectively vocal on these civilian killings perpetrated by the remnants of the NPA,” Torres said.

He reiterated the task force’s appeal for the CHR to act promptly, fulfill its mandate, and show equal resolve in condemning and investigating the killings.

Torres said human rights are not exclusive to armed rebels, activists, or ideological allies but belong equally to poor farmers, church workers, tricycle drivers, laborers, former rebels, barangay officials, and other civilians killed in remote communities.

“The Filipino people deserve consistency, fairness, and truth,” he said.

Torres said continued silence or delay in acting on the killings only emboldens those responsible and deepens the suffering of affected communities.

“The bloodstained truth can no longer be hidden behind propaganda, slogans, and carefully manufactured ‘human rights’ narratives,” the task force said, adding that the cases are not fabricated stories but names, lives, families, and futures violently erased under the CPP-NPA-NDF’s “revolutionary justice.”

“It was never about liberating the people. It was about controlling communities through fear, suspicion, coercion, and violence,” the NTF-ELCAC said.