Residents of Barangay Imelda, Las Navas, Northern Samar forced 20th IB troops’ Retooled Community Support Program (RCSP) to back off from their plan to build a military camp in the community. Residents firmly declared their opposition in an assembly on March 17.

News of a military camp in Barangay Imelda first surfaced in 2024. The 20th IB reiterated the plan on March 15 without detailing the exact location of the military camp. They also forced residents to gather wood and other materials under the guise of the military’s civic action or CIVAC. Residents call this “sibak” (tree-cutting using an axe).

On the day of the “sibak,” residents learned the camp would stand on a hill above a sitio. The site sits less than 50 meters from the last house, violating international humanitarian law’s minimum 500-meter distance from civilian communities.

The Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) specifically covers rules on military camps. The government of the Republic of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines signed this agreement on March 16, 1998, in The Hague, Netherlands. It focuses on areas of armed conflict.

Part 4 (Respect for International Humanitarian Law), Article 12 of CARHRIHL states: “Civilian population shall have the right to be protected against the risks and dangers posed by the presence of military camps in urban centers and other populated areas.”

In extreme anger at the soldiers’ deception, residents halted the “sibak.” This forced the RCSP troopers to call another assembly. The assembly disrupted the farmers’ living, who could not go to and work their fields.

Residents individually grabbed the microphone from the soldiers to voice opposition to the camp. They fear getting caught in encounters, especially the youth, and bullets and bombs hitting their houses. They also fear harsher repression of their livelihoods from the military’s permanent presence.

Residents’ insistence forced the military to close the issue with a vote. They lined up supporters of the camp on one side of the plaza and opponents on the other. Only three people supported the camp.

In humiliation, the fascists immediately ended the assembly. They also suspended the logbook policy that day. The fascist logbook policy forces residents to list all their daily activities and destinations.

Despite residents’ rejection of the military camp plan, RCSP armed troops are still encamped in civilian houses in the barangay. They also continue building a camp outside the barangay but still near the road to town.

The 20th IB imposed various repressive policies in Barangay Imelda in recent months. These include logbook rules, curfews, limits on take-away food and fields visited, forced surrenders, interrogations and asset recruitment, and operations in farmlands.

Military repression and terrorism dropped production and shrunk fields and kaingins. Residents plant properly only when the military leaves their communities.

—reports from Larab, revolutionary mass paper of Eastern Visayas