By Priam Nepomuceno
MANILA – A ranking official of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) on Monday joined the clamor calling for justice for the civilians killed in Negros Island due to alleged “spy-tagging” by New People’s Army (NPA) remnants.
NTF-ELCAC executive director Undersecretary Ernesto Torres Jr. made the call after reports coming from the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ 3rd Infantry Division (ID) indicated that 28 persons have so far been killed since March last year, or an average of two civilians killed or murdered every month.
“This pattern of killings is deeply alarming and morally indefensible. When two civilians are being murdered every month on one island alone, we are no longer speaking of isolated incidents, we are confronting a sustained campaign of terror,” he added.
Latest data from the 3rd ID showed that the most recent victim was an elderly woman shot outside her home in Barangay Tapi, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental after being accused by the NPA of being linked to a previous encounter between government troops and communist rebels.
Torres stressed that branding civilians as informants or “spies” without due process effectively paints a target on their backs.
“This is the deadly consequence of so-called ‘spy-tagging.’ Once labeled by the communist terrorist group as a traitor or government asset, a civilian becomes a marked individual — condemned without trial, without evidence, without humanity,” Torres said.
He recalled the earlier killing of elderly civilian Leonor Anguit, after being publicly accused by communist elements of being a spy. Her death, the NTF-ELCAC official said, reflected a pattern of executions carried out against defenseless individuals.
“The killing of Lola Leonor Anguit shocked the conscience of the nation. An elderly woman — publicly vilified, then brutally silenced. That is not armed struggle. That is terrorism inflicted on one’s own people,” Torres said.
Torres also warned that the steady average of two fatalities per month signals a disturbing normalization of violence in communities already burdened by poverty and insecurity.
“Two civilians every month is not a statistic — it is a family shattered, a community traumatized, and a future stolen. Violence has no place in communities that are striving for peace and development,” he said.
He echoed the 3rd ID’s call urging the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to conduct a thorough, impartial, and transparent investigation into the killings.
“We respectfully urge the CHR to look squarely into these crimes. Human rights must apply equally to all. The rights of farmers, elderly women, laborers, and ordinary community members in Negros deserve the same vigilance and protection as any other Filipino,” he said.
Torres underscored that the country must reject any narrative that justifies violence against civilians under the guise of ideology.
“Justice must never be selective. Silence in the face of these killings only emboldens further bloodshed. We stand with the families of the victims and demand accountability. The blood of civilians must never be trivialized as collateral to ideology,” Torres said. (PNA)
