Kabataang Makabayan (KM)-Negros expresses its utmost rage and vehemently condemns the 47th Infantry Battalion and Bohol Provincial Police Office upon confirmation that there was no encounter last February 24 in Bilar, Bohol, but another cold-blooded massacre of captured revolutionaries. We demand justice for victims Domingo Compoc, Hannah Cesista, Parlito Historia, Marlon Omosura and Alberto Sancho.

According to recent information, the five Red fighters were captured by the AFP’s 47th IB and PNP Bohol in Sitio Matin-ao 2, Barangay Campagao, Bilar, Bohol. Thus, they should have been afforded their rights as prisoners of war as stated in the third 1949 Geneva Convention, in Additional Protocol 1 of 1977 and under the GRP-NDFP Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL). As neanderthal goons of the elite however, the AFP and PNP tussled over the reward money of Domingo Compoc and committed their business-as-usual scheme of torturing and eventually brutally killing hors de combat.

Compoc was suffering from arthritis and old age, and was stabbed to death in front of villagers. Cesista, along with Compoc and the other victims, was made to crawl in the mud until the fascists decided to kill her as well. There was no encounter to begin with, only a showcase of the wanton violent nature of the AFP and PNP against the defenseless.

The reactionary state continues their brutal streak of massacres of hors de combat and civilians in the hope to threaten the masses. We also condemn the killing of farmer Jose Caramihan in Sitio Mansulao, Barangay Pinapugasan, Escalante City last February 21. He was murdered by the 79th IB and paraded as a NPA casualty after an encounter with Red fighters. These kinds of mercenary gestures only show the people that the illusion of peace propagated by the AFP, PNP, and NTF-Elcac is ridden with blood.

Thus, like Cesista, more youth are enticed to join the NPA after being disillusioned of the pseudo-democracy indoctrinated by the ruling class in our educational system. It is not a waste for a lawyer to go to the countryside and defend the oppressed and exploited. Utter waste and garbage should be used to describe the 47th IB and the reactionary state as a whole, who are in truth the ones capitalizing upon their murders to keep up with their twisted sense of besmirching the revolution that they cannot defeat and instead always end up expanding.

The revolutionary youth of Negros have not forgotten the brutal murder of National Democratic Front consultant Ericson Acosta and peasant organizer Joseph Jimenez at the hands of the 47th IB in Barangay Camansi, Kabankalan City on November 2022. The 47th IB is also accountable for separate incidents of extrajudicial killing of farmers Jonel Bayno and Rogelio Lacton who were taken by the 47th IB from their homes and were only seen by their families as cadavers left along the road in the hinterland of Sipalay City on May 2023. This same butcher battalion massacred five hors de combat, including a pregnant woman, and a tricycle driver on September 21, 2023 at Barangay Tabugon, Kabankalan City.

As we pay our highest tributes to the Bilar 5, KM-Negros also vows to continue expanding and consolidating its ranks to strengthen the revolutionary movement. We take inspiration from the likes of Rachelle Mae Palang, Nikka dela Cruz, Cheene Dacalos and Hannah Cesista, and the rest of the radical and progressive youth who chose to join the armed struggle and offer the highest form of sacrifice for the interests and welfare of the exploited masses.###