Introduction

August is marked as the month commemorating international humanitarian law (IHL), the set of rules governing wars to ensure the rights of those involved and not involved in armed confrontations. It was created mainly to safeguard the welfare of civilians amid armed conflicts.

Central to its principles are the distinction between combatants and non-combatants, the use of appropriate force according to proportionality, the determination of who and what are legitimate targets, protection against killing, injury, and harm to those not involved in combat, assurance of minimal harm to civilians and their communities, and more.

The armed forces of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) violate these principles in their war against the New People’s Army. In the last 10 years alone, under the former Duterte regime and the current Marcos regime, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) have deliberately killed dozens of unarmed revolutionaries incapable of fighting back. Many have been arrested, tortured, and charged with fabricated criminal cases. Some women fighters have been captured and taken as hostages—some with their infants—to force the surrender of their fellow fighter-husbands. Long is also the list of civilians killed and falsely portrayed as combatants, cases of bombing and terrorism of civilian communities, forced surrenders, and the use of civilians in combat operations as guides or servants.

The incumbent GRP president Ferdinand Marcos Jr is no different from his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte in terms of atrocity, scale of war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law. From Duterte’s bloody Development Support and Security Plan (DSSP) Kapayapaan, Marcos created the PLEDS (Peace, Law Enforcement, Development Support) “Pagkakaisa” to continue the brutal campaign of gradual constriction, prettified with declarations of “stability” and “local peace.” As with DSSP Kapayapaan, PLEDS “Pagkakaisa” relentlessly conducts massive combat operations in communities suspected of hosting “revolutionary infrastructure.” This has also relentlessly militarized communities, trampled upon civilians’ rights and freedoms, and strangled their livelihoods—all in the name of “preventing the resurgence” of the people’s army.

Ang Bayan (AB) issues this special report as part of efforts to hold Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his defense officials, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police, and paramilitaries accountable for their war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law. It focuses mainly on violations of rules concerning those directly and not directly involved in armed conflict. This report covers both the armed and unarmed members of the Communist Party of the Philippines, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, and the New People’s Army. These crimes primarily involved troops of the 94th IB, 62nd IB, 402nd IBde, 15th IB, 59th IB, 8th ID, 4th ID, 31st IB, and others.

The broader accounting of the Marcos regime’s crimes can be found in the semiannual special reports of AB on the PRWC website, https://philippinerevolution.nu/, which also published a special report on the Duterte regime’s war crimes.

Willful killing of the captured and the incapacitated

According to AB’s record, AFP forces willfully killed 78 Party members and people’s army fighters from July 2022 to July 2025. Contrary to the military’s public statements and parroted by state agencies that they died in encounters, almost all had been captured and were already under military custody when they were killed. Others, often wounded, were overpowered, captured, and later extrajudicially executed.

Numerous testimonies and documentation confirm the circumstances of these killings, including witnesses stating that no encounters took place in the supposed locations. The bodies of those slain also bore torture marks. Some underwent autopsies, revealing clear signs of severe torture before death.

A year ago, on August 5, soldiers under the 3rd ID massacred 10 Red fighters at the boundary of Antique, Aklan, and Iloilo. Surviving fighters said that, contrary to AFP’s official and bragged report, there were no series of encounters in which the 11 were supposedly defeated. Claims by the 3rd ID and 301st Brigade of clashes on August 5, 7, 8, 15, and 24, 2024 were an utter lie. Only the first clash (August 5) occurred, in which Ka Amor (Benjamin Cortel) was martyred. In this incident, the remaining 10 were captured, tortured, moved to different locations where they were executed. Collectively known as the August Martyrs of Panay, they were Panay regional Party committee secretary Vicente Hinojales (Ka Emil/Hadji), Panay Party spokesperson and NDFP peace talks consultant Ma. Conception Araneta-Bocala (Ka Concha), together with Rewilmar Torrato (Ka Mara/Minerva), Aurelio Bosque (Ka Rio/Zarco), Juvelene Silverio (Ka Porang/Akay), Romulo Gangoso (Ka Reagan/Pedik), Jerry Tacaisan (Ka Miller), Armando Sabares (Ka Nene/Kulot), and Jielmor Gauranoc (Ka Tango/Doc). John Paul Capio (Ka Roling/Ronron) survived the initial encounter but was captured while traveling and was eventually executed.

Up to now, the families of Benito Tiamzon (Ka Laan) and Wilma Tiamzon (Ka Bagong-tao) have not recovered their remains after having been killed alongside the other named Catbalogan Martyrs. The two, with Ka Yen, Ka Jaja, Ka Matt, Ka Ash, Ka Delfin, Ka Lupe, and Ka Butig, were captured on August 22, 2022 while traveling from Northern Samar to Catbalogan City. They were tortured and killed. Troops loaded their remains onto a boat, took them several kilometers offshore, where bombs onboard were detonated. Their remains were shredded and unrecognizable, requiring lengthy DNA testing for identification. The perpetrators claimed that a “chase” and subsequent firefight occured, contrary to coastal residents’ accounts of hearing only a single explosion. The 8th ID’s Task Force Storm and the US-trained and -directed Joint Special Operations Task Force-Trident carried out the massacre and fabricated firefight.

The cruelty inflicted on lawyer Hannah Cesista (Ka Maya), one of the five fighters captured and killed by 47th IB troopers and police in Bilar, Bohol on the morning of February 23, 2024, remains etched in the memories of her friends and family. She was killed with Domingo Compoc (Ka Laser), Parlito Historia (Ka Aldrin), Marlon Omosura (Ka Darwin), and Alberto Sancho (Ka Juaning), collectively called the Bilar 5. Witnesses reported that Cesista was forced to crawl in the mud to make it appear she resisted before being shot. A resident photographed Compoc alive and in a soldier’s grip, before he was reported killed in a staged encounter.

Similar events befell Kaliska Dominica Peralta (Ka Rekka), captured, separated from comrades, and willfully killed by 48th IB forces in Quezon, Bukidnon on April 10, 2024. Also in Bukidnon, Vincent Madlos (Ka Yuno) and his wife Glorivic Campos Belandres (Ka Layka) were captured at the Atugan Bridge in Impasug-ong on September 1, 2022 while waiting for transport. AFP soldiers staged an encounter in Capitan Bayong in the same town hours later to portray them as killed in action.

Negros island regional Party committee secretary Rogelio Posadas (Ka Cocoy) was captured on April 20, 2023 while riding a motorcycle on the Aranda–La Castellana Road from Isabela, Negros Occidental, with three others. He was claimed to have died the next day in an encounter in Barangay Santol, Binalbagan. Soldiers further staged three fake clashes in nearby communities to deceive residents. The military used this same theatrics for the killing of NDF–Negros personnel Nonoy Ponteras (Ka Jojo) and Marisa Pobresa (Ka Kim) who were captured in Bacolod City on March 7, 2025 and later presented as slain in an encounter in Caduhaan, Capiz City the next day.

NPA–Negros Island spokesperson Romeo Nanta (Ka Juanito Magbanua) was willfully killed on October 10, 2022 after his capture in Carabalan, Himamaylan City. Soldiers killed another prominent figure, poet Ericson Acosta (Ka Fredo), in a farmer’s home in Camansi, Kabankalan City on November 30, 2022, along with peasant leader Joseph Jimenez. AFP also claimed these as deaths from an encounter.

The 94th IB elements willfully killed four sick Red fighters in Barangay Santol, Binalbagan on July 6, 2022. Roel Ladera (Ka Jack), Nikka Dela Cruz (Ka Chai), Alden Rodriguez (Ka Rocky), and Roel Deguit (Ka Caloy) were in no condition to fight when soldiers strafed the hut they stayed in. Mario Baldusa (Ka Jekoy) and Janhel Sarsa (Ka Jorge) were already wounded when willfully killed by 62nd IB in Quintin Remo, Moises Padilla on November 28, 2022.

Five NPA fighters were traveling in a tricycle when 47th IB elements blocked the vehicle and opened fire in Barangay Tabugon, Kabankalan City on September 21, 2023. Red medics Bobby Pedro (Ka Rekoy), Mario Mullon (Ka Goring), and Janice Flores (Ka Joyce) died on the spot from the immense firepower, along with spouses Alejo delos Reyes (Ka Bravo) and Melissa dela Peña (Ka Diane), who was then six months pregnant. Tricycle driver Robin Gaitan also died. None were armed nor made any move to fight.

The same happened to Ariel Arbitrario (Ka Karl), Danielle Marie Pelagio (Ka Seed), and Erin Sagsagat (Ka Jorly), who were killed by 502nd Brigade troopers in Peñablanca, Cagayan on the early morning of September 11, 2024. They were captured, tortured, then killed. The remains of Arbitrario, an NDFP peace consultant and then Cagayan Valley regional Party committee secretary, was surfaced only two days later.

In Southern Tagalog, 59th IB and MIG-4 elements killed Isagani Isita (Ka Ringo) on July 30, 2023 in Sariaya, Quezon, alleging he “fought back” while being served an arrest warrant. On November 13, 2023, Jethro Isaac Ferrer (Ka Pascual) and Peter Rivera (Ka Rochie) were arrested while conducting mass work in Gloria, Oriental Mindoro and later killed. In Rizal, 80th IB troopers captured and killed recuperating fighter Wally Collandes Agudes (Ka KM) at his house in Rodriguez on July 18, 2024.

AFP troopers tortured and even coerced Rafael Zambrano (Ka Dodong) to guide them in combat operations before killing him on October 8, 2023 in Kalamansig, Sultan Kudarat. In the same province, soldiers killed Indot Dulunan (Ka Dennis), Sep Kasa (Ka Ho), Allan Dalimbang (Ka Duran), Annabel Talon (Ka Elena), another identified as Ka Pogi, and civilian Gerry Kasa on November 22, 2023 in Barangay Chua, Bagumbayan. Witnesses said the five fighters surrendered when surrounded but were shot dead at close range.

In Leyte, Juanito Selleca Jr (Ka Tibor), Sadam Paclita (Ka Dimple), and Lino Delante (Ka Dodong) were killed while recuperating in Cogon, Carigara on June 17, 2025.

Retired cadres who were already sickly, Rodrigo Mejica Lorezo (Ka Akag) and Delia Rosco Rotamola (Ka Mema) were also killed in San Jose de Buan, Samar on August 7, 2022.
In Kabankalan City, 94th IB killed stroke recovering patient Arjen Mahinay (Ka Nonong) and his medic companion Junjun Callet (Ka Ruben) in Barangay Oringao on February 4, 2022. In Budlasan, Canlaon City on April 28, 2023, 62nd IB troopers killed Anthony Curson (Ka Miguel), who was bedridden from kidney disease.

Wounded in action, Alvin Bayno (Ka Dagger) was killed instead of given first aid in Banog-banog, Isabela, Negros Occidental on May 20, 2023. Likewise, wounded Marvic Ebayle (Ka Bryan) was killed in Montilla, Moises Padilla on June 20, 2023. About one kilometer from a clash site between NPA–Negros and 62nd IB, soldiers captured wounded Tony Pahayahay (Ka Pidol) in Humay-humay, Guihulngan City and eventually killed him.

Also wounded, Alvin Lumagsao Sinsano (Ka Zian) was killed by 15th IB elements in Barangay Camindangan, Sipalay City on August 1, 2024. Prior to that, on July 29, 2024, the 15th IB abducted unarmed Reggie Fundador (Ka Tata) in the same barangay. The next day his corpse was found on the road in Crossing Magtanday, clearly bearing torture marks.

Rodbey Lumanog (Ka Wanny) was alive when captured after his unit clashed with soldiers in Barangay Camindangan, Sipalay City on January 10, 2025. He was tortured before he was killed. On October 31, 2024, Alvin Panoy (Ka Belmar) was also captured alive in an encounter with 12th IB in Libacao, Aklan. Not far into their maneuver, his comrades heard him shouting before soldiers riddled him with bullets, virtually celebrating, amid shouts of “Happy new year!”

Amid mass work, Jenny Fariolan (Ka Hope) and John Eric Talibo (Ka Blue) were captured and killed in Leon, Iloilo by 61st IB and 301st IBde on July 19, 2024. Similarly, 94th IB arrested and killed Henry Casido (Ka Nico) while fetching water in Barangay Oringao, Kabankalan City on February 4, 2023.

Retired cadres Rudy Garay (Ka Dano) and Rosalie Caindoy (Ka Zig) were abducted from a hospital in Misamis Oriental, killed, and their bodies surfaced in San Juan, Bayugan City on March 26, 2023. The same happened to retired cadre Emanuel Llanos Anob, who was abducted near a highway in Butuan City, killed, and presented as slain in a clash in San Miguel, Surigao del Sur. Soldiers surfaced his body at a funeral home in Bayugan City.

On April 4, 2023, Manuel Tinio (Ka Dodie), a Party island committee cadre in Bohol, was hailed with bullets while traveling on the San Miguel–Ubay boundary. Seven bullet wounds killed him instantly.

Abductions and enforced disappearances

Killed, abducted and forcibly disappeared along with revolutionaries are the civilians traveling with them, seeking treatment, or resting.

The military has yet to surface Lynn Grace Marturillas, Renel Delos Santos, and Denald Mialen, who were traveling with Rogelio Posadas when he was abducted en route to La Castellana, Negros. Marturillas was a peasant organizer, while the motorcycles they rented were driven by Delos Santos and Mialen.

Still missing is Southern Mindanao Party committee cadre Ariel Badiang (Ka Paolo) whom soldiers abducted in Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon on February 2, 2023.

In Occidental Mindoro, hors de combat fighter Sonny Rogelio (Ka Ed) and companion Sonny Sambutan (Ka Omeng) were taken captive and never surfaced. They got separated from their unit after a clash with 10th Special Action Battalion and 76th IB troopers on October 17, 2023 in Bongabong.

Gross violations against pregnant women, new mothers, and their infants

AB documented and reported three cases of forced abduction of pregnant women on medical leave, two new mothers, and their infants. The AFP committed a grave violation not only by illegally and secretly detaining the pregnant women but also by kidnapping their babies and using them as hostages to force the surrender of their Red fighter father or mother.

Cherilyn Rebita (Ka Jan), seven months pregnant, was arrested with wounded fighter Jacklyn Egtob (Ka Jane) in a house in Surigao del Norte on August 22, 2022. They were secretly detained in a military safehouse in Ata-atahon, Nasipit, Agusan del Norte, where 402nd Brigade officers, personnel identifying themselves as from “OPPAP,” and a “surrendered” fighter named “Dagat” Rabanes repeatedly interrogated them. While in detention, Rebita gave birth to girl which she named Baby Rhea. Merely several weeks old, Baby Rhea was forcibly separated from her mother and kept as a hostage to pressure the surrender of her father, also a Red fighter father. Egtob was also given the “mission” of convincing her brother to surrender.

After Rebita and Egtob returned to their unit bearing this “mission,” the same military unit abducted two more pregnant women. On November 3, 2022, the same 402nd IBde elements who transported Rebita and Egtob to the site kidnapped Aurily Havana (Ka Laiza) and Jennifer Binungkasan (Ka Laile) along a highway in Butuan City.

Rebita’s family recovered Baby Rhea two months after demanding that the infant’s rigthful place is with her family.

On December 18, 2023, 11th IB elements abducted two pregnant women, Jing Villacarillo (Ka Aubrey) and Ka Sara, from their rest area in Siaton, Negros Occidental. They were mercilessly tortured despite their delicate condition and were forced to surrender in exchange for humane treatment.

In Samar, soldiers kidnapped, on March 2023, two new mothers and their newborn infants, detaining them with others in the 8th ID camp in Barangay Maulong, Catbalogan. Relatives were banned from visiting, and they had no legal representation. At least 10 other victims of secret detention in the camp have been subjected to emotional, physical, and mental torture by military perpetrators. The 8th ID continues to hold Mariel Rebato and her newborn child, as well as Monica Ogacho and her newborn baby. They are detained along with Marygrace Tambis Bicina, Renato Chokoy Rufo, and three others the military abducted in March 2023. Some of the victims were abducted from rented homes in Calbayog City as far back as December 2022.

Arrests, fabricated charges, and forced surrenders

Since assuming power, the Marcos regime has arrested, charged with fabricated cases, and imprisoned six National Democratic Front of the Philippines peace consultants. As of June 2025, at least 15 consultants and other NDF personnel are detained in various jails nationwide. These arrests and criminal charges against them violate the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), one of the fundamental agreements in the peace negotiations signed by the GRP and NDFP in 1995.

On January 30, 2023, authorities arrested Ruben Saluta, his wife Presentacion Cordon-Saluta, and their companion Yvonne Losaria in Labangal, General Santos City. They charged Saluta with fabricated case of murder, while they filed a rebellion case against Cordon-Saluta and Losaria. They were also charged with illegal possession of firearms based on “evidence” of six high-powered firearms, ammunition, and other military equipment planted by the arresting team at their residence. Both Saluta and his wife are elderly and sickly. Losaria also suffers from serious health problems.

At the request of Philippine authorities, Eric Jun Casilao, an NDFP consultant for the Reciprocal Working Committee on the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms (CASER), was arrested in Langkawi, Malaysia on April 1. He was deported from Malaysia on April 18, 2023, declared a “terrorist,” and paraded like a criminal at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

In the last quarter of 2024, the regime successively arrested four more consultants in separate locations. The 10th ID arrested Porferio Tuna (Ka Simon Santiago) in Tagum City on October 2, 2024, took him to their camp and attempted to force him to surrender and renounce his political stand. On October 21, 2024, they arrested Simeon Naogsan (Ka Filiw) in Bacarra, Ilocos Norte, where he was recuperating from illnesses. Two days later, military and police agents raided a house in Quezon City, arresting Wigberto Villarico and his companion Marjorie Lizada.

On December 5, 2024, military and police agents also raided Tomas Dominado’s residence in Iloilo City. They arrested him and his caregiver, Jofel, and later transferred him to a jail with inhumane detention conditions. Paralyzed and suffering multiple illnesses after a stroke the previous year, Dominado was denied needed medical care, worsening his condition. He was brought to a hospital only after strong demands from his children and lawyer.

AFP units routinely abduct NPA fighters, confine them in secret detention facilities, and pressure them into surrendering and abandoning their cause. One such victim was NPA–Sorsogon member Gerald Gestole, who was seeking medical treatment when abducted in San Pedro, Laguna on November 17, 2024. His family faced threats and intimidation when they sought him in police stations and military camps. Gestole was eventually allowed to contact his family, telling them he was among other “surrendered” individuals in military custody, but his family was barred from visiting or even knowing his location.

Rachel Dahoyla Santillan, identified as a Party cadre, was also abducted while she was traveling in Bukidnon. Authorities falsely claimed they arrested her in Bumbaran (now Amai Manabilang), Lanao del Sur on September 4, 2022. She was forced to surrender prior to her release.

Coercion, inhumane detention, and treatment

In Southern Tagalog, the 85th IB captured a wounded NPA fighter after a battle in San Francisco, Quezon on November 30, 2022. Instead of treating his injuries, they paraded him like a trophy on social media.

Another accused NPA member has been kept in inhumane detention conditions in Laguna Provincial Jail in Sta. Cruz. Acer Tucerbo, accused of being an NPA platoon leader in Matuguinao, Western Samar was transferred on February 12, 2023.

Desecration of remains

Over the past three years, AB has documented nine cases involving the desecration of the remains of cadres and fighters. Three of the worst cases involved the remains of captured and willfully killed comrades, including the bodies of the Catbalogan Martyrs, the Bilar 5, and the couple Madlos and Belandres.

In Sultan Kudarat, police and soldiers desecrated the body of Emmanuel Fernandez (Ka Ampog), which Red medics had left in a hut for his family to retrieve in Senator Ninoy Aquino town on October 30, 2022. Fernandez had died from illness within the NPA unit, and the medics chose to transfer custody of his remains to his family for burial. Upon learning, local police informed the 603rd Brigade, which in turn went to the location and stole the body. They claimed he was killed in an encounter to claim the bounty on his head. Fernandez was then Far South Mindanao regional Party committee secretary and a Central Committee member.

In a battle on December 17, 2023 in Batangas, 59th IB troopers desecrated the remains of those killed, namely, Maria Jetruth Jolongbayan (Ka Orya), Alyssa Lemoncito (Ka Ilaya), Precious Alyssa Anacta (Ka Komi), Joy Mercado (Ka Kyrie), and Leonardo Manahan (Ka Mendel). The soldiers exposed their bodies long under the heat of the sun and let them rot at the battle site in the town of Balayan. This rendered most of the remains unrecognizable: their faces destroyed, their bodies bloated, infested, and overwhelmingly putrid.

Soldiers from the 59th IB also desecrated the bodies of Gladys Cassandra “Ka George” Mendoza (25), Jethro Royce “Ka Alex” Magtira (21), and Jian Markus “Ka Reb” Tayco (23), all killed in battle in Tuy, Batangas on June 23, 2024. Their corpses were exposed and let to decompose until their faces and bodies became swollen beyond recognition.

In Capiz, 12th IB soldiers riddled with bullets the already dead body of Red fighter Jyrel Katipunan (Ka Jason) killed on December 9, 2024. Soldiers did the same to Onal Osia Balaoing (Ka Puk-et) in Balbalan, Kalinga after he died on December 17, 2023. Soldiers opened fire at his corpse until his intestines and brains exploded, and even broke multiple bones in his arms and legs.

Use of disproportionate force

Violating the principle of proportionality, AFP forces have been dropping 250-pound and 500-pound bombs from fighter planes to destroy temporary NPA camps. Soldiers typically justify this with fabricated stories that these are countermeasures against the people’s army’s command-detonated explosives (CDEx). These bombs have torn fighters’ bodies to pieces, destroyed forests and farmland, and terrorized communities.

At least three bombing incidents severely damaged slain fighters.

One of these involved the dropping of at least nine bombs on Las Navas, Northern Samar, in the early hours of November 23, 2022. Large bombs aside, helicopters strafed and 105 howitzer cannons shelled the NPA’s temporary encampment. Six fighters were killed, including Helenita Pardalis (Ka Elay), then Eastern Visayas regional Party committee secretary and a Central Committee member. Photos captured from the site showed extreme damage to the fighters’ heads, bodies, and internal organs. The bombs created craters three meters long and two meters deep.

In another case, at least five NPA members in Anticala, Butuan City died instantly under the excessive force of five 500-pound bombs dropped by AFP’s Super Tucano aircraft on the people’s army’s temporary encampment.

In Bukidnon, on December 25, 2023, ten fighters were killed when the 4th ID Tactical Air Wing dropped four bombs on the NPA’s temporary camp in Barangay Can-ayan, Malaybalay City. Multiple 250-pound bombs were dropped excessively and indiscriminately, terrorizing the province’s residents.