THE coordinated campaign by front organizations of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) to flip the narrative of the horrendous losses suffered by its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), during clashes last April in Negros Island failed to make any headway among a Filipino citizenry full awaken to their deceptive propaganda.
Undersecretary Ernesto ‘Jun’ Torres, Executive Director, National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), in a statement said the clashes last April 19 in Bgy. Salamanca, town of Toboso and the armed encounter in Bgy. Caliling, town of Cauyan, Negros Occidental, “shattered the illusion of the so-called armed revolution in Negros.”
“What remains visible today are not heroic narratives, but the ruins of a violent movement that consumed generations of Negrenses through deception, terror-grooming, spy-tagging killings, fear, and ideological exploitation,” said Torres, a former spokesperson of the Armed Forces and former area commander for Northern Luzon (NOLCOM) before being named as NTF-ELCAC head by President Marcos Jr. in 2023.
The firefight in Toboso not only resulted to the death of 19 NPA terrorists but more telling, revealed the continued active recruitment of CPP front organizations targeting students both here and abroad, particularly, in the United States.
In a statement after the encounter peppered with contradictions, the CPP claimed only 10 of the casualties were NPAs while the remaining 9 others were “civilians.”
The CPP also acknowledged that among those killed was Roger Fabillar (Ka Tapang), NPA commander of the Northern Negros Front.
It also identified the alleged civilians killed as Roel Sabillo, 19, of Barangay Tabunac, Toboso; R.J. Nichole Ledesma, 30, community journalist from Bacolod City; Alyssa Alano, councilor, UP Diliman Student Council; Maureen Keil Santuyo, 24, member of National Network of Agrarian Reform Advocates (NNARA-Youth); Errol Wendel, 24, member of Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura;
Lyle Prijoles, 40, of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, from San Franciso, California (USA); Kai Sorem, 26, from Seattle, Washington (USA); a 15-year-old resident of Sitio Plarending, Barangay Salamanca, Toboso and a 17-year-old resident of Sitio Buklog, Barangay Lalong, Calatrava, Negros Occidental.
Prijoles and Sorem are US citizens of Filipino descent.
The admission did not explain why—or how it happened— that the alleged civilians were in their company.
The bigger truth revealed
The identities of those killed, especially the students and foreigners, reaffirmed the military and the NTF-ELCAC’s long-standing position that the CPP’s front organizations such as Kabataan Party List, BAYAN, KARAPATAN, and others, are actively engage in the systematic and organize recruitment of students to serve as cannon fodders for their “armed revolution” romanticized as the “ultimate expression” of “serving the people.”
“The deaths…now stand as undeniable proof of what government had warned about for years: the existence of a terror-grooming pipeline that systematically targets vulnerable youth, students, activists, and idealistic individuals, drawing them step by step into clandestine structures and eventually into armed violence and death,” Torres said.
The encounter also reaffirmed the military’s position that the network of alliances pursued by the CPP since its founding in 1968 both here and abroad remain active and effective and they continue to oil the machinery of terrorism even with the death of CPP founder Jose Maria Sison in December 2022.
The CPP’s “alliance works” are being handled thru the National Democratic Front (NDF) composed of at least 12 “underground” organizations covering the various sectors of society with corresponding “aboveground” organizations that freely move around including having seats in Congress.
Wanting to turn its military disaster into a profitable propaganda campaign, CPP operatives embedded within the government started to brand the Toboso encounter as a “massacre” with even the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), long believed as heavily infiltrated by the CPP, announcing it would conduct an investigation.
One government forensic expert went to the absurd claim of accusing the military of committing a “war crime,” a claim that betrayed possible hidden association with the terrorist group.
Despite these coordinated efforts, Torres maintained that the CPP’s propaganda surrounding the armed encounter has “collapsed under the weight of facts.”
US Embassy security alert
The American Embassy, long silent to the reported activities of CPP fronts in the US mainland, was also prompted to issue a “security alert” last May 1, as a direct consequence of the Toboso encounter.
It reminded its citizens that the NPA “is designated a foreign terrorist organization by the governments of the United States and the Philippines.”
“Anyone in proximity of NPA elements is at grave risk of arrest, injury, or death.
“Foreign terrorist organizations actively recruit Americans to participate directly in terrorist activities and/or provide financial support,” the Embassy statement noted.
It also reminded US citizens to contact it immediately for help should they become associated with a group suspected of engaging in terrorism or armed opposition to the Philippine government.
The Embassy also divulged it is already aware that some NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) “have affiliations with the NPA and other violent groups.”
“Americans seeking to engage in humanitarian activities should work with groups registered with the Philippines National Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency and obtain the correct visa,” it added.