Since October 12 up to now, 11th IB troops are rummaging countryside communities in Barangay Santo Niño, Tanjay City, Negros Oriental. Sitios Cangque, Pasto, Tigbao, Busay, and the barangay proper are occupied by military forces supposedly scouring for New People’s Army (NPA) in the area. Like in Santa Catalina, Siaton and Pamplona towns, all in Negros Oriental, the 11th IB troops are forcibly imposing a 7:00 pm curfew, while illegally searching residents who pass by their temporary encampments.

In the same period, a family in Barangay Ali-is, Bayawan City, Negros Oriental, were interrogated and threatened by the military for ‘supporting and sheltering the NPA’. Eight people were victimized by the 11th IB including one church official.

These attacks are part of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)’s plan to ‘eliminate the NPA’ by year’s end, a familiar declaration that has failed year upon year since the Marcos Sr regime. Despite declaring the area as a ‘dismantled’ guerilla front, 11th IB troops continue their rampant human rights violations and military operations, only proving that their declaration is nothing but a hoax for unbridled corruption and imperialist favors.

The Rachel Mae Palang Command-(RMPC-NPA) vehemently condemns these outrageous acts of the military. This is nothing but an act of pure cowardice in their end. With their failure to actually dismantle the guerilla front, they retaliate against farm workers and farmers who are barely surviving due to the crisis. Unwittingly they will only persuade the peasant masses to realize the stark contrast of the AFP as the mercenaries of big landlords and compradors, and their genuine army who represents and fights for their interests—the NPA.