A resolution urging the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) thru lawyer Gazzelenne Corsame-Fuentes, CHR-Negros Island Region (CHR-NIR), to conduct an immediate, transparent and impartial investigation, with the help of the National Bureau Investigation (NBI) and forensic experts, into the 19 deaths resulting from the April 19 armed encounter in Barangay Salamanca, Toboso, Negros Occidental, was approved by the Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod Wednesday.
Authored by Councilor Wilson Gamboa Jr., the resolution said the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is an independent office created to investigate human rights violations, visit jails and provide legal aid to victims of human right abuses by authorities.
Reports from the Altermidya Network and Peasant Organizations have identified some deceased activists as R. J. Nichole Ledesma, community journalist from Bacolod City; Alyssa Alano, councilor, UP Diliman Student Council Maureen Keil Santuyo; Lyle Prijoles of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines from San Francisco, California, USA, and Kai Sorem from Seattle, Washington USA, all conducting field work on renewable energy impacts and several others, belonging to several cause oriented, civil society, partylist and non-government organization, it said.
There are public outcries and public sentiments that call for impartial investigations, accountability, and the protection of civilians in militarized areas, the resolution said.
The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) has an annual budget for 2026 of P8.08 billion to manage the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Programs for former rebels alongside developmental aid to insurgency influenced areas, it said.
Targeting civilians with willful killing is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions on war and the International Humanitarian Law, the resolution said.
Steps must be made by conflicting parties in conflict and militarized areas that no similar incidents as mentioned above will occur in the future involving civilians, it said.
This will resolve two conflicting narratives by the activist groups and military, the resolution said.*
