• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) has described Negros Island as the “epicenter” of killings of civilians accused by the New People’s Army (NPA) of being military informants.
NTF-ELCAC executive director Ernesto Torres Jr. disclosed that 51 of the 59 documented “spy-tagging” killings and summary executions nationwide attributed to the NPA from 2021 to May 2026 occurred in Negros Island, with 49 recorded in Negros Occidental.
Torres urged the Commission on Human Rights to give equal attention to killings perpetrated and even boastfully claimed by communist rebels.
“The CHR must act with dispatch, fulfill its universal mandate, and demonstrate equal resolve in condemning and investigating these executions,” he said.
“Human rights are not exclusive to armed rebels, activists, or ideological allies. Human rights belong equally to poor farmers, church workers, tricycle drivers, laborers, former rebels, barangay officials, and ordinary civilians murdered in remote communities,” Torres added.
He also said that the continued silence and alleged “foot-dragging” on the issue only embolden perpetrators and deepen the suffering of affected communities.
Of 49 rebel-initiated killings in Negros recorded from January 2025 to May 2026, 39 took place in Negros Occidental and 10 in Negros Oriental.
“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,” Torres said.
In previous statements, the NPA had claimed responsibility for the deaths of civilians that they accused of being military informants.
The 59 killings does not include 20 other reported cases involving former rebels, CAFGU members, and government troops, as victims whose deaths are still being validated, Torres further said.
“In all, the victims may even reach 85 in Negros alone and nearly 90 nationwide during the period,” he added.
Among the cases cited by Torres was the killing of 74-year-old Leonora Anguit, also known as “Lola Leonora,” a resident of Barangay Tapi in Kabankalan City.
Torres said Anguit was killed on February 3, 2026, after being accused of being an informant, with the killing claimed by the Armando Sumayang Jr. Command of the NPA.
“Lola Leonora was not killed in combat. She was not an armed fighter. Her death further exposes the CPP-NPA-NDF’s horrifying practice of branding civilians as informants to justify executions outside any lawful judicial process,” Torres said.
He also accused the CPP-NPA-NDF and its allied organizations of allegedly highlighting human rights issues only when rebels are killed in armed encounters while remaining silent on civilian deaths blamed on the insurgent movement.
“Their hypocrisy is staggering. Their silence is complicity,” Torres said.*
