By CESAR JOLITO III
The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) has claimed that the Negros Island Region has become the “epicenter” of alleged summary executions and so-called “spy-tagging” killings perpetrated by the Communist Party of the Philippines – New People’s Army – National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF).
In a statement, NTF-ELCAC Executive Director Ernesto Torres, Jr. said at least 59 documented cases of alleged spy-tagging killings and executions nationwide from 2021 to May 2026 have been recorded, with 51 victims reportedly coming from Negros Island alone.
According to Torres, 41 of the victims were from Negros Occidental while 10 were from Negros Oriental.
He added that 49 of the reported killings in Negros allegedly occurred between January 2025 and May 2026.
The NTF-ELCAC said the victims included farmers, laborers, tricycle drivers, barangay tanods, church workers, former rebels, indigenous peoples leaders, and other civilians accused of being government informants or subjected to what the group described as “kangaroo courts.”
“These are not fabricated stories. These are names, lives, families, and futures violently erased under the CPP-NPA-NDF’s so-called “revolutionary justice” — a euphemism for cold-blooded murder,” Torres said in a statement.
Among the cases cited by the agency were the killings of Councilor Dennis Sadagnot in Negros Oriental in 2024, church worker Rey Norquiana, farmer Jemar Mahusay, former rebel Joseph Agustin, and 74-year-old Leonora Anguit of Kabankalan City’s Barangay Tapi, who was reportedly killed in February 2026 after allegedly being accused of being an informant.
The cases still do not include more than 20 other reported cases involving civilians and government troops who were similarly executed with impunity, the details of which are still being collated and validated.
Torres said the recent killings following the encounter in Toboso on April 19 further reflected what he described as a “continuing campaign of terror” against civilians in Negros communities.
“For years, entire villages in Negros lived under an atmosphere where anyone accused of cooperating with government, refusing revolutionary taxation, surrendering from the armed movement, or simply disagreeing with the CPP-NPA-NDF could be marked for death,” the statement said.
The NTF-ELCAC also urged the Commission on Human Rights to conduct investigations into the reported killings and to issue statements condemning attacks against civilians allegedly perpetrated by remnants of the NPA.
“The Filipino people deserve consistency, fairness and truth,” Torres said, while reiterating calls for accountability over the reported executions.
The statement forms part of the government’s continuing campaign against insurgency in Negros and other parts of the country.
The CPP-NPA-NDF has yet to issue a response to the allegations raised in the statement./CJ, WDJ