• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
A Kabataan Partylist nominee and a student council member of the University of the Philippines – Diliman were among the 19 killed in a series of gun battles between New People’s Army rebels and the Army on April 19 in Barangay Salamanca, Toboso, Negros Occidental.
Human rights advocates Karapatan and Human Rights Advocates Negros have confirmed the death of RJ Nichole Ledesma, a Kabataan Partylist nominee in the 2022 elections, while UP Diliman also reported the death of councilor Alyssa Alano, from what it claimed was indiscriminate strafing, allegedly from the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Ledesma, a former editor-in-chief of the Spectrum, the student publication of the University of St. La Salle- Bacolod, was also reported as a former chairperson of the League of Filipino Students in Bacolod, and is affiliated with the Paghimutad-Negros Island Alternative Media.
Local community media outfit Altermidya Network, in a statement said it mourns the death of Ledesma, writer and editor of Paghimutad-Negros and regional coordinator of Altermidya in Negros Island. Citing claims of Human Rights Advocates Negros (HRAN), the Altermidya Network alleged that Ledesma was not in the initial clash in Sitio Sinugmawan.
Instead, he was attacked in a separate peasant community in Sitio Plaringding during an ensuing military pursuit operation, the community media outfit alleged.
Felipe Gelle Jr., HRAN focal person, confirmed that Ledesma, a resident of Bacolod City, was 7th nominee of the Kabataan Partylist group during the 2022 elections.
In another statement, the UP Diliman Student Council admitted that Alano, an Education Research Councilor, also chaired the UP Diliman chapter of the League of Filipino Students, which has long been an advocate of marginalized sectors.
The Philippine Army reported that 19 suspected rebels died in a series of gun battles in Sitios of Sinugmawan and Plarinding, all in Brgy. Salamanca, Toboso.
An Army soldier was also injured in the gun battles.
Twenty four high-powered firearms, as well as explosives were recovered by Army soldiers from the encounter sites.
In a statement, Undersecretary Ernesto Torres Jr., executive director of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict National Secretariat, said that while security forces have successfully neutralized an armed threat, “we must confront the painful truth that those who perished were Filipinos—misled, manipulated, and ultimately sacrificed by a collapsing terrorist movement that continues to feed on lies and deception.”
To those who remain in the armed struggle, we say this: the path you are on leads nowhere but loss. The organization you serve will not protect you. It will use you, and when the time comes, abandon you, Torres said, stressing that the long arm of the law will reach you, and it always does.
First Lt. Fevie Fajardo, 79th Infantry Battalion Civil Military Operations officer, reported that the remains of seven of the 19 rebels killed in the armed encounters in Brgy. Salamanca, Toboso, have been claimed by their respective families. Fajardo, however, did not identify the cadavers already claimed from the funeral parlors in Toboso and Escalante City.
Brig. Gen. Ted Dumosmog, 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, identified the five top leaders killed in the series of gunbattles as Glenmar Bacosmo, secretary of the Northern Negros Front, with aliases of Pat and Salem; Roger Fabillar, with aliases of Arnel Tapang and Jhong, commanding officer of the Special Operations Group and Sentro de Gravidad of Northern Negros Front; and his deputy, Pedro Bonghanoy, alias Regie; as well as Rene Villarin Sr., a vice squad leader of the same rebel unit that was declared as dismantled three years ago by the Philippine Army.
There are reports that the one the slain rebels is a foreigner, allegedly a Dutch national.
However, the Philippine Army said they have no information on it.
Major General Michael Samson, 3rd Infantry Division commander, yesterday said that they are tracking and monitoring the group of Fabillar, alias Jhong, responsible for the killing of more than 30 civilians, in the hinterlands of northern Negros. While he was elusive for some time, Samson said with a tip from residents in the area, “we were able to catch them up.”
He, however, admitted that they were surprised by the number of rebels encountered by Army soldiers in the series of gun battles which started from 4 a.m. to 3 p.m. of April 19.*
