What were civilians doing in Toboso, Negros Occidental
TOBOSO, Negros Occidental – Residents of sitio Plaringding, barangay Salamanca told members of the national fact-finding and solidarity mission (NFSM) that six of the 19 killed on April 19 were civilians.
Residents interviewed by the NFSM said they met Errol Wendell, Maureen Santuyo, Alyssa Alano, Lyle Prijoles, Kai Sorem and RJ Ledesma months prior to the April 19 incident. They were not armed, contrary to military’s claims that they were members of the New People’s Army (NPA).
During a press conference in Bacolod City on May 15, former Anakpawis Rep. Ariel Casilao, now chairperson of Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA), said that Errol who had been working as a staff of the organization was deployed together with Santuyo to conduct a research in Toboso since February last year.
Casilao said members of the National Federation of Sugarcane Workers (NFSW) in Negros reported 38 cases of land disputes. To help the farmers and farm workers, Casilao said UMA deployed two full-time staff to help organize and build a land reform case for the Department of Agrarian Reform.
“For the months that they were in Barangay Salamanca, Errol reported that 18-hectares of land being cultivated by 16 peasant worker families, or 32 individuals, should have long been awarded to the farm workers. Based on Errol’s research, the person controlling the land only holds a tax declaration, not title,” Casilao said.
The said 18-hectare land is Hacienda Bedonia owned by the Baynosa family. The land is being leased to a “June Son” who operates a sugar plantation on the hacienda. According to UMA, the farm workers working in the sugar plantation were only paid P150 (less than $3) a day without social security benefits and others.
Around November 2025, the Hacienda Baynosa Farmers and Farmworkers Association (HBFFA) was established. In December 2025, after the harvest season, the sugarcane workers informed the leaseholder of the hacienda that they would no longer continue planting sugarcane.
By February 2026, the farm workers began the bungkalan or collectively cultivated at least four hectares of land where they planted mung beans, cassava and sweet potato.
In March 2026, UMA said the landowner became alarmed after the leaseholder reported the situation, though initially no action was taken against the farm workers. The land administrator also filed a complaint against the 16 families before the barangay, but it was dismissed because the barangay found no basis for the complaint because the administrator could not present a land title.
“Until about the second week of April, members of the Baynosa family reported the land occupation to the mayor of Toboso saying that there are members of the New People’s Army allegedly taking over the land,” Casilao said in a separate interview.
On April 18, members of the 79th Infantry Battalion began intimidating and threatening the residents. The next day, soldiers killed 19 individuals.
Meanwhile, Ledesma was looking into a reported renewable energy project in sitio Moscubado, barangay Poblacion, also in Toboso. The land is owned by the provincial government. Based on the reports gathered by UMA, the farmers have been anxious that they might be displaced by the project.
The local government of Toboso is eyeing Negros Occidental to be a top renewable energy town.
“Our organizers and researchers were there because of this issue. RJ’s role, as well as the presence of Lai and Kai, was no different from RJ and Lyle’s visit to Candoni in October 2025. They never questioned the presence of a journalist and international solidarity companions who wanted to understand the situation of the people of Negros,” said Casilao.
Casilao is referring to the palm oil plantation that will displace 300 households of small farmers and Indigenous families in the uplands of Candoni, Negros Occidental. Over 3,000 hectares of land have been cleared by palm oil giant Hacienda Asia Plantations, Inc., which is linked to the Consunji family who also owns DMCI Holdings.
Prijoles and Ledesma also participated in the international solidarity mission which looked into destructive projects in different regions in the Philippines, Negros included, in October last year.
Casilao stressed that the presence of the NPA guerrillas is immaterial in the Toboso 19 massacre, saying that there are existing laws that the Philippine government should adhere to in the midst of war.
“The military knows there is NPA in this area and that is the reality, not only here in Toboso but in the whole country,” Casilao said, adding that NPA presence should not be a justification to tag researchers in the same area as such.
Casilao said that Roel Sabillo, another civilian among the 19 dead, served as the local guide for Ledesma and the others.
“From the accounts that we gathered, the NPAs are also helping the farmers, they are just armed. But Errol and the others were not,” he added, reiterating that they are civilians including the two minors who were also killed.
The Communist Party of the Philippines also named 10 NPA fighters who were killed in the April 19 military operation.
Casilao added that the Armed Forces of the Philippines have not yet explained the drone footage of NPA leader Roger Fabillar which he said, can be the sole witness to what really transpired last April 19, when he was killed.
In the Philippines, there is also an existing law that penalizes crimes against humanity under Republic Act 9851 or the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity. Lawyer Kristina Conti of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers cited provisions of the law that may have been violated in the case of the Toboso 19 massacre.
Conti said Section 4 of the law states violations committed in the context of an international or internationalized war. These include willful killing, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, willfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights and fair trial, among others.
Conti added that the law is clear that civilians should be distinguished from combatants. “There must be a clear distinction as to who the legitimate targets are. The difference between civilians and combatants must always be underscored. A violation of this principle constitutes a war crime,” Conti said.
Conti also said Section C, Number 5 penalizes incidental loss of civilian life or injury to civilians. She said that based on some of forensic pathologist Raquel Fortun’s findings, some of the deceased appear to have died not only from gunshot wounds, but from bleeding to death or asphyxiation.
Section 6C, Number 18 also declares that the personal dignity of individuals protected under the rules of war must be maintained.
Negros island, ‘massacre capital’
Casilao noted that the circumstances that led to the killing of the19 people in Toboso was the same circumstances when nine people were killed in Hacienda Nene in Purok Pine Tree Barangay Bulanon, Sagay City also in Negros Occidental in 2018. The farmers were also staging a collective cultivation of idle farm lands in the community.
“Sad to say but the information that we gathered in the past years show that Negros has become the massacre capital of the Philippines,” Casilao said citing Sagay massacre in 2018 and Fausto massacre in Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental where two children was also killed.
In 2019, 14 peassants were killed in a police and military operations in three different areas in Negros Oriental on a single day.
The massacre in the island would be traced back to the years of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos where 20 farmers were killed in Escalante massacre, also in Negros.
Casilao said they demand accountability on the deaths of the Toboso 19. “Peace talks should also resume to address the roots of armed conflict,” he said. (RTS, RVO)
Read part 1: Bullets rained down in Toboso, residents tell fact-finding team
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