Human Rights groups condemns the murder of a farmer beheaded and dumped in a ravine in Barangay Tan-awan, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental. Bernardo Guillen had been missing since September 17, 2020 after an encounter took place between the Philippine Army and the New People’s Army.

Guillen was found dead on September 26, Saturday at around 11 in the morning by his younger brother and members of the community, with his body decomposing and his head severed from his torso.

Bernardo Guillen is a farmer, over his 50’s, married, and a resident of Sitio Amian, Barangay Tan-awan, Kabankalan City.

On the day of the encounter, prior to Guillen’s murder

Narration from his brother revealed that on September 17, 2020 at around 3:00 in the afternoon Bernardo and his wife were working on their farm when they heard the burst of gunfire. They went home bringing along the carabao. Upon arriving at his house, elements of the Philippine Army were allegedly already at their house.

The soldiers told them to evacuate to safer place, which prompted them to evacuate to Sitio Alusiman. While on the way, he returned to his house while his wife and children continued towards the evacuation site. He never returned to his family, and after seven days, was found after a searching party of his younger brother and neighbors with the assistance of the barangay tanods in a deep ravine near the encounter site.

Human rights advocates also received information on the illegal arrest of five farmers and torture of another farmer in the communities around the encounter site.

Human Rights Org: Denounce Philippine Army’s human rights abuses & calls for investigation from Commission on Human Rights Philippines

The September 21 Movement, in a released statement, remarked that gruesome murder is meant to instill fear among the populace and the farmers in the hinterlands, and that the horrors of Martial Law and the Oplan Thunderbolt of the 1980s have been resurrected. The human rights group also pointed out the Philippine Army’s Oplan Sauron that killed almost 50 farmers between 2018 & 2019 and alleged vigilante operations in the name of counter-insurgency operations as having a definite role in the spike of killings & attacks against farmers.

Karapatan Negros Island also call unto the Commission on Human Rights to dispatch investigative mission to document and investigate the role of the members of the Philippine Army present at that time after the encounter in said incident and other human rights abuses, as well encourage everyone to condemn these abuses, stand up and defend human rights.

“We also challenge the local government to address this killings and gross human rights violations happening in the communities of farmers victimized by the intensified military operations”, Clarissa Singson, Karapatan Negros secretary general, said in a statement.