At least 6 households in Sitio Natoling, Barangay Budlasan, Canlaon City, Negros Oriental were indiscriminately fired at, harassed, and searched without warrants by troops of the 62nd Infantry Battalion of the AFP, in the wee hours of the morning last January 15, 2022. The homes of Primitivo Corson, Charlie and Leonida Corson, Michael Corson, Rolly Corson, Jerry and Maricel Montefalcon, and Noel Montefalcon were subsequently raided and searched from 1 to 5 o’ clock in the morning, with the residents then red-tagged as NPA members and supporters, forced to surrender, with guns pointed at them. The military then fired their rifles indiscriminately, threatening and traumatising children and adults alike.

The mercenary troops of the AFP then left behind a few hundred pesos and a kilo of rice to Marcel and Leonida, both being alone in their houses as their husbands were out to work. The two were then told to proceed to the military detachment in Barangay Biak-na-Bato, La Castellana, Negros Occidental along with their husbands to make them surrender after the AFP completely ransacked their households. Leonida was handed the money as the barrel of an M16 rifle was pointed at her through a hole in their house. Meanwhile, Noel Montefalcon’s house was left to his 3 young children and sibling who is a Person With Disability (PWD). Nevertheless, the military ransacked the house and fired shots in the area. Rolly, Michael and their wives were also pointed at with the AFP’s guns, with Michael’s wife being 8 months pregnant. Primitivo was forced to make his son surrender as well for being suspected as an NPA member. The victims were also shown a list of all red-tagged individuals in the area, which included their family members who are plain farmers and workers.

Up to now, the military is continuing their operations in the Sitio and nearby Barangay Puso in La Castellana and Trinidad & Sandayao in Guihulngan City. The military raids in Sitio Natoling also happened in the same day of the brutal murder of Arnold Swerte and the illegal detention of 3 others in Sitio Manlibod, Barangay Sandayao, Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental. On January 15 alone, the AFP committed 8 cases of human rights violations that have victimised at least 16 civilians including 4 minors, 1 PWD and 1 pregnant woman.

The 62nd IB, 303rd Brigade and the entire AFP along with the PNP and NTF-ELCAC are getting more desperately violent against the defenseless civilians to pursue their blind ambition to end the revolution by May 2022. It is getting more obvious that their “decisive battle” will involve the murder and terrorizing the innocents. As demanded by their maniacal mastermind Duterte, the entire reactionary state machinery are poised to kill, arrest, harass, and intimidate the Negrosanons and the Filipino people who do not kowtow to the whims of the ailing dictator. They disregard and openly violate International Humanitarian Law yet say otherwise, but they can no longer hide in the pretense of peace when their barbaric and monstrous acts terrorize the masses everyday.

The brutality of the AFP, PNP, and the NTF-ELCAC can no longer be guised in their misleading press releases of ‘helping the people’. With Negrosanons still far from recovering from Typhoon Odette’s devastation while facing the continuing Covid-19 pandemic, what the military is doing is completely opposite of helping. In the countryside, the people are disgusted and infuriated by the relentless vicious attacks of the military, misusing taxpayer money to fund their ruthlessness by the billions while the Filipino people are bearing the brunt of the socioeconomic crisis.

As Sauron-like operations like these continue, the masses will opt to tread the path of armed revolution along with the CPP, NPA, and revolutionary mass organizations are determined to unite in frustrating and ending the bloody counterrevolutionary war of the US-Duterte regime. The struggle against an increasingly corrupt, treacherous, and tyrannical regime has only made the conditions more favorable for the expansion and consolidation of the NPA. The LPC-NPA vow to continue intensifying its offensives, while denying the enemy of any hint of advantage through mastery of guerilla tactics. The people’s war and its inevitable advancement will continue through the ceaseless and tireless perseverance and strengthened unity of the entire revolutionary forces in Central Negros. ###