As investigations are rightfully being called for and conducted into the deaths of 19 persons as a result of gun battles between government forces and wanted NPA rebels in Toboso, Negros Occidental, on April 19, the Filipino people can only hope that such probes result in either the Philippine Army being able to provide the necessary evidence and prove their claims that all of the fatalities were indeed armed combatants, or in the delivery of justice and improvements to the system to ensure that civilians and non-combatants, regardless of their beliefs, relationship with the legitimate targets, and level of radicalization, are not killed when government forces and rebels are involved in armed engagements.
If you come to think of it, whenever government forces kill anyone, there should be no demand for any investigation as that should be automatic. After all, our armed forces and police are applying in the most lethal manner the arms, equipment, and training that is funded by the Filipino taxpayer and their every move should therefore be strictly subject to our laws. Any use of those resources that results in a death always has to be justified. That sort of accountability is the burden of being a public servant, and in this era where the information age has peaked, gathering and providing the necessary evidence to justify their kills as totally necessary should’ve been part of their operations manual a long time ago.
Filipinos should be hopeful that our military has the evidence it needs to prove that their use of lethal force on all the 19 that were killed in the armed encounters was justified, because it would do a lot to silence critics and shore up their credibility. If they can’t, or if evidence showing that they killed unarmed non-combatants is presented, then they’ll just have to prepare to face the music.
In today’s world, “Trust me, bro” just doesn’t cut it anymore. That was made worse during the Duterte administration’s drug war, when overzealous and bloodthirsty cops killed tens of thousands of Filipinos and automatically and shamelessly invoked the excuse of ‘nanlaban’ to justify those executions. The situation may have improved slightly since then, but the government really can’t blame us for requiring more than just their assurance when encounters with security forces result in deaths. Receipts are necessary, which means investigations will be demanded when the reports are disputed or questioned.
Just like the truth, the investigation into the circumstances behind the deaths of at least half of the ‘Toboso 19,’ is bound to be complicated.
The simplest outcome would be for the military to come up with solid evidence that backs up their claim that all those who were killed were armed combatants. On the flip side, it would be a disaster for the reputation of the Army if it was proven that unarmed non-combatants were killed. Aside from those two simple outcomes, there are also a myriad of possibilities in the grey area that could explain why those people were at the site of the armed engagement. Were they invited there? Were they just curious, doing research, and had their radicalization been successful, a failure, or somewhere in between? In the heat of the firefights, were they actively armed and firing back at government troops, cowering in fear, or were they handed weapons and told to start shooting back at their attackers or die? Will an investigation ever be able to ferret out the whole truth of what happened, when so much could be hidden or lost in the fog of war?
The question that would be the hardest to answer is what were the community journalist, 2 UP students, and 2 American citizens, among others, doing there in the rebel camp, led by Roger Fabillar, who has a bounty of P2 million on his head for being responsible for the merciless executions more than 36 people over the course of a year? Obviously they had been invited there and had the trust of the rebel group, most likely because they were useful and prime targets for radicalization by a group that was increasingly running short of believers and fighters.
Some of us avoid contact with the NPA at all costs, but humans being an intelligent, curious, and diverse species, means that there are those who might want to make contact, for their own purposes that the rest of us can neither understand nor explain. Perhaps those who were killed in Toboso were really just researching, or maybe they had already been radicalized, converted, and trained for warfare. Or maybe they were somewhere in between when they were killed in an armed encounter. We can say that they shouldn’t have been there in the first place, but we do not know the whys, and just being there shouldn’t be a death sentence, or at the very least, it is no excuse to belittle the value of their lives.
If you come to think of it, anyone who can convince a group of idealistic city people to live the lifestyle of wanted killers and bandits in a remote location must be pretty charismatic and likeable. That is the duality of man. Being a cold-blooded killer does not automatically make people like Fabillar an unlikeable guy who raises internal alarm bells and red flags from others. Considering the diversity of the people who were killed around him, he must’ve been quite charming and intelligent, at the very least. After all, most people, even the most idealistic activist types, wouldn’t allow themselves to be radicalized by brute force.
If we don’t want more Filipinos to be killed in the crossfire between the NPA and the military, our investigations into the ‘Toboso 19’ has to go beyond whether or not those who died were combatants or not. We have to understand why so many young, idealistic, and impressionable people were up there in such a remote area when the NPA is supposed to be a spent force with a dead ideology.*
