August 25, 2026
The People’s Coalition on Food
Sovereignty expresses its utmost solidarity with the people
of Negros, especially the residents of Toboso in Negros
Occidental, as we mark the fourth month since the Toboso 19
massacre.
PCFS joined last week’s National
Solidarity Mission (NSM) in Bacolod City, Negros
Occidental—organized as a follow-up to the independent
National Fact Finding and Solidarity Mission (NFFSM) last
May that revealed heinous state-perpetrated violations of
human rights and international humanitarian law surrounding
the Toboso 19 massacre, which happened on 19 April
2026.
The massacre took place in the course of an
overkill military operation in Brgy. Salamanca, Toboso,
killing nine civilians – two of whom are minors – and 10
members of the New People’s Army. The civilians included
local farmer Roel Sabillo, community journalist RJ Nichole
Ledesma, student leaders Alyssa Alano and Maureen Keil
Santuyo, peasant researcher Errol Wendel, and
Filipino-American human rights advocates Lyle Prijoles and
Kai Dana-Rene Sorem.
According to the May
NFFSM, the 79th Infantry Battalion of the Armed Forces
of the Philippines (AFP) committed multiple war crimes. Not
only were civilians killed and hundreds displaced; the
mission found that the NPA members were hors de
combat and killed defenselessly with lethal force, a
grave violation of international humanitarian law. The
remains of all massacre victims were also mishandled and
desecrated, with Errol Wendel’s body still missing to
date.
Advertisement – scroll to continue reading
Toboso 19 adds to the growing list of
state-perpetrated massacres in Negros that have earned it
the moniker “massacre capital of the Philippines.”
Majority of the documented massacre victims throughout the
years were farmers.
Behind the massacres is the
intensifying militarization in the guise of
counter-insurgency faced by communities struggling against
rampant landgrabbing and dire poverty. Beyond sugarcane
haciendas that Negros is known for, farmlands are being
grabbed and converted into palm oil plantations (6,600
hectares in Candoni), solar farms (1,250 hectares), mining,
and other forms of development aggression. Around 64% of the
province’s land is controlled by only 9% of landowners.
Meanwhile, an estimated 464,000 hectares of land in Negros
Occidental remain undistributed.
The stories shared by
affected communities during last week’s NSM have painted
the picture: the high poverty incidence and hunger in the
region, especially among sugar farmworkers, and the presence
of armed conflict are results of the failure to address the
land issue in the area. Worse, state terrorism is being
employed to further facilitate land concentration in the
hands of the elite few and suppress resistance.
PCFS
strongly condemns the ongoing and intensifying
militarization in Negros, as well as the growing landgrabs
taking place. We echo the call for justice not just for the
Toboso 19 massacre, but for all massacres that have taken
place without anyone held accountable until today. We are
deeply concerned about the growing number of
state-perpetrated violations of human rights and
international humanitarian law not just in Negros but in
many regions in the Philippines, as state terror has become
the rule of law—further pushing rural people deeper into
hunger and poverty. The Government of the Republic of the
Philippines, helmed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and
its military should be held accountable.
Around 150
from international, national, and local groups participated
in the NSM, which happened on 18-19 August 2026. Manindigan
Negros Island, Defend Negros network, and KARAPATAN mainly
organized the event with the theme “Panghigugma,
Pagdumdum, Pagpadayon: Pasidungog sa Negros 19” (Love,
Remembrance, Perseverance: Tributes to the Negros
19)
