Justice for Toboso 19! Defend Negros! 

It has been a month since the killings of nineteen individuals in the municipality of Toboso, Negros Occidental province on April 19, 2026, by the Philippine military, but justice remains out of sight. Among those killed were peasant organisers Maureen Santuyo and Errol Wendel, community journalist RJ Ledesma, student-leader Alyssa Alano, and Filipino-American activists Lyle Prijoles and Kai Sorem—all of whom were unarmed civilians, contrary to state narratives.  IBON International joins the call for justice and stands in solidarity with their family, friends, and communities, who now carry the weight of their loss. 

Landlessness and poverty are rife in Negros island, which date back to the Spanish colonial period in the country, and are preserved for the same elite and imperialist interests today. The conditions in Negros prompted the likes of Lyle, Kai, RJ, Maureen, Errol, Alyssa, and many others who came before them, to join the people in defending the rights of the peasantry and farmworkers tilling its soil. 

With large United States military aid, the prior Duterte administration adopted Memorandum Order No. 32 in 2018 to entrench Negros into further militarisation. The move encouraged a deadly climate for farmers, workers, and activists who relentlessly advanced for human rights and genuine agrarian reform. Countless more carnage would add to the state and elites’ long record of violence in the island: Sagay 9 massacre in 2018; the murder of lawyer Benjamin Ramos in the same year; ‘Operation Sauron’ in 2019; and various trumped-up charges against activists and development workers in following years.

We are alarmed, but unsurprised, by the brazen terror-tagging of the US embassy in Manila  against local non-government organisations on its statement released on May 1, 2026. The security alert came after the Toboso 19 massacre, which killed American citizens Lyle and Kai. Void of grief or empathy, the statement reads: “Some nongovernmental organizations have affiliations with the NPA [New People’s Army] and other violent groups.” It echoes unfounded and perverse claims against progressive civil society organisations propagated by the state to sow fear, deter civic participation, and justify rights violations. This narrative has stifled civil society in the country; since 2020, the Philippine civic space has been ‘repressed’. 

State violence under the pretext of counterinsurgency is a trite tactic to quell the people’s struggle for peace based on social and economic justice. In 2025, the US-backed Marcos Jr. administration adopted the National Action Plan for Unity, Peace, and Development (NAP-UPD) 2025–2028, as its current counterinsurgency framework. Like previous counterinsurgency campaigns, the NAP-UPD operates under a national security policy aligned with US interests. The US-Marcos Jr. security partnership has allowed the US to fund and train Philippine forces on ‘territorial defense, maritime security, and CT [counterterrorism] capabilities’ for its posture in the Indo-Pacific region. Additionally, the attack came a day before the beginning of the 2026 US-Philippines joint military exercises.

The NAP-UPD was drafted by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), an institution notorious for endangering individuals and organisations engaged in civic and development work through terror-tagging. The NTF-ELCAC purports to ‘address the root causes of insurgency and armed conflict’, yet has done nothing but reinforce systemic injustices as a state institution. Its history of human rights violations against communities and non-government organisations in Negros, for instance, belies its sham ‘peace’ mandate. The presence of the NTF-ELCAC and the military has instead mired the people in further instability. 

Militarisation is part and parcel of the rampant resource extraction in Negros island. In 2023, IBON International co-published a joint research on a World Bank-funded project in the Philippines—the ‘Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling’ (SPLIT). The World Bank’s SPLIT project, which is a project with the country’s Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), operates under a market-oriented rhetoric.

SPLIT intends to improve the ‘insecurity of property rights’ by parcelising collectively owned land granted to agrarian reform beneficiaries under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). Discussions with various peasant organisations in Negros Occidental revealed SPLIT’s menacing effects: reconcentration of land back to elites, fragmentation of community relationships, and undermined collective farming practices. Organisations also noted the intrusive presence of the military and the NTF-ELCAC, enabled by the ‘whole-of-nation approach’, throughout the implementation process. Beyond conversations on SPLIT, organisation leaders have been coerced by regular military visits to denounce “leftist” groups.

While the Marcos Jr. administration perpetuates injustice in the name of so-called ‘peace and security’, do the people of Negros get to define what a peaceful and secure life means for them? For the 653 residents in Toboso municipality, it means not being displaced from their homes as military operations execute civilians. For development workers and community organisers, it means serving communities without surveillance and fabricated charges. For scores of landless peasants, it means benefiting from the land they till without threats of elite and corporate encroachment. The lack of ‘peace’ in Negros, after all, stems from the state’s brutal response to people’s assertions of their rights.

We call for peace that is based on social justice; one that enables people to exercise their rights, ensures accountability and redress, and holistically addresses societal ills. Militarisation is the antithesis of such a just peace. We denounce the US-funded state violence in Negros and in the rest of the Philippines. We urge the international community to strengthen their solidarity with the Filipino people and their campaigns to resist militarism under the US-backed Marcos Jr. regime. #