More than 300 families wereevacuated on February 22, after the morning bombings and evening airstrikes of 79th IB in Sitio Mansulao, Barangay Pinapugasan, Escalante City, Negros Occidental, which are part of the Trangkal Mountain Range. A series of alleged encounters between government forces and the New People’s Army since February 21 prompted the evacuation.
Mayor Madonnah Jaojoco of Toboso and Mayor Melecio Yap of Escalante City also ordered the suspension of classes in at least 9 barangays until further notice.
The AFP’s 79th IB declared the operation as a “final blow” to end remnants of a dismanted Nortern Negros front.
Meanwhile, the Roselyn Jean Pelle Command-NPA’s Northern Negros Guerrilla Front denied that an armed encounter traspired in the morning of February 21, when the 79th IB dropped at least 10 bombs in Sitio Mansulao.
In the evening of February 21, locals reported that the military strafed the same perimeter using machine guns atop Augusta Westland 109 attack helicopters.
According to RJPC-NPA, the only legitimate encounter occurred on February 21, around 11:00 in the morning, along the border of Sitio Mansulao, Barangay San Isidro, Toboso, Negros Occidental and Sitio Mansulao, Barangay Pinapugasan, Escalante City, both part of the Trangkal Range.
“These attacks fail to distinguish between combatants and civilians, and any injuries or deaths among civilians are considered “collateral damage”, Human Rights Advocates Negros (HRAN) spokesperson Pete Pico said.
The HR group added the operation is prohibited under international law, particularly Protocol 1 of the Geneva Conventions.
“The use of bombs against guerrilla fighters armed only with rifles and less powerful weapons is a disproportionate and unnecessary use of force. Clearly, the AFP violated international humanitarian law,” rebel spokesperson Maoche Legislador of the Apolinario Gatmaitan Command, Negros Island Regional Operations Command of the NPA, said in a press statement.
Fronts Dismantled
All five guerrilla fronts of the New People’s Army (NPA) on Negros Island were declared dismantled by the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division (3ID) Lt. Col. J Jay Javines of the 3ID’s civic-military operations office last January.
In 2021, the the Armed Forces Philippines Central Command (CentCom) awarded the 79th IB a Gawad Kalinaw plaque for “dismantling” the Northern Negros Front.
The 3ID recommended placing the island under a state of Stable Internal Peace and Security (SIPS).
“The declaration of stable peace and order by the 3rd Division Philippine Army appears hollow, as armed skirmishes persist in the countryside. The army’s deployment of two brigades against so-called “remnants of NPA” in Negros contradicts this claim,” HRAN said.
Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said last February 14 there will be no pull out of armed forces in the provinces despite the recent declaration.
Lacson said the Regional Peace and Order Council, which he chairs, will still need to discuss this on March 13.
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Paghimutad 