Elements of the 62nd Infantry Battalion, Negros Oriental Police Office, PNP-Guihulngan City and PNP-Special Action Force 7 illegally arrested farmer Nemfa de Lima in Sitio Uwayan, Brgy Budlasan, Canlaon City, Negros Oriental yesterday April 1 at around 5 AM. de Lima’s residence was planted with an old cal .38 revolver, bullets, and a rifle grenade.

On the same day at around 4 AM, the residence of Noel Montefalcon in Sitio Natoling of the same Barangay was planted with the exact same revolver, ammunition and grenade. Montefalcon was not in his residence during the military operation and only his sibling was home at the time.

de Lima was repeatedly red-tagged by the Canlaon City Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (CTF-ELCAC). Montefalcon’s residence and nearby houses were ransacked and fired at by the 62nd IB last January.

Three years after the bloody Oplan Sauron, Sauron-like operations by the AFP and PNP continue in the hinterlands of Negros up to this day, targeting innocent civilians and peasant leaders.