Bulatlat

Thousands of people in northern Negros have been forced to flee their homes as fighting rages between the military and the NPA in the area. The area is gripped by a reign of terror as military operations there have caused violations of human rights.

BY KARL G. OMBION
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 38, October 28-November 3, 2007

BACOLOD CITY --  Persistent media reports show that northern Negros, particularly the ESTOCASA (Escalante, Toboso, Calatrava, San Carlos) area has been the scene of massive military deployments, and intermittent but fierce encounters between government security troops and the New People’s Army (NPA).

On Oct. 22, two soldiers of the Philippine Army’s 33rd Division Reconnaisance Company were wounded in an encounter with armed elements believed to be members of an NPA unit under the Jean Pelle Command.

Military operations in these areas have also caused several cases of human rights violations and mass evacuations as reported by Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights). Among these are the killings of three farmers, Karapatan stated.

The recent armed skirmishes between Army troops and NPA units in the mountain villages of Calatrava have displaced anew hundreds of families.

Calatrava Mayor Alfonso Baguio said that around 586 families or a total of 2,931 individuals from three hinterland villages of his municipality have been forced to flee their homes after Army troopers launched massive operations against suspected units of the NPA who ambushed them Monday. The NPA ambush operations resulted in the wounding of two soldiers belonging to the army’s Special Operations Teams (SOTs).

The displaced families came from the villages of Macasilao, Hilub-ang and Cruz,” Baguio said.

In his report last week to Governor Joseph Marañon, Baguio said that Barangay (village) Hilub-ang has the most evacuees or a total of 2,288 individuals; Macasilao has 500 individuals, and Cruz with 143.

Baguio said that the displaced families of three villages are temporarily taking shelter in various evacuation centers in their respective villages.

He also said that those with farms and animals return to their sitios (sub-villages) to attend to farm activities, but go back to the evacuation centers before the sun sets.

Calatrava is now coordinating with the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office and the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) in extending relief assistance to displaced families, Baguio said.

The provincial government in coordination with local government units concerned and other humanitarian organizations have started delivery of relief assistance to the affected communities, while some doctors have been sent to the evacuation centers to check on the health condition of the evacuees.

Meanwhile, 303rd Brigade CMO (Civil-Military Operations) chief Maj. Nathaniel Villasor has assured civilians that their soldiers are under full instruction to “strictly observe the rules of engagement,” such as avoidance of indiscriminate firing, maltreatment of civilians, among others.

Villasor said the NPA guerrillas were responsible for the ambush of SOT units Monday that wounded Pfc. Anacleto Jabonite and Cpl. Mamerto Alimoren. The two soldiers are now recuperating in a local hospital.

The 303rd Brigaide through the Task Force North, have deployed in recent months, 12 army Special Operation Teams in the ESTOCASA area’s hinterland villages to counter the organizing and expansion activities of the NPA in northern Negros.

In a related development, the Jean Pelle Command, in a statement released to local media, put the blame for the “reign of terror” in northern areas on the military’s “massive troop deployment and sustained combat and intelligence operations.”

“The Arroyo regime-directed Oplan Bantay Laya II (OBL or Operation Freedom Watch II) is now plaguing Northern Negros with brutal murders, abductions, tortures, warrantless arrests and coercions perpetrated by the military, police and the CAFGUs (Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Units), the Jean Pelle Command’s statement read.

The Jean Pelle Command, believed to be operating in northern Negros, stated that the area is now an “experimental area” of the Philippine Army’s Task Force North which it said wants to copy the “Palparanic model of state terror” after the military’s national command has declared Negros island as one of the priority areas of the Oplan Bantay Laya II (OBL II).

It said that “the abduction, torture and murder of a local peasant named Alano Clerigo of Sitio Lagoc, Brgy.Menchaca, Calatrava (on) Oct. 10, 2007 and the daylight murder of NFSW (National Federation of Sugar Workers) local leader Antonio Mercado of Brgy. Salamanca, Toboso, a member of Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) Party-List were the latest in the bloody trail of OBL II.”
 
“The brutal, barbaric murder of Clerigo is one of the worst crimes that the military committed under OBL II here in Negros,” the Jean Pelle Command stated. “To sow terror among the people is the message of this brutality. Even the CMO Officer of the 303rd Bgde claimed that this is indeed a brutal crime. (It) thus deserves condemnation in its highest form.”
 
“Clerigo was forcibly taken by members of the…Scout Rangers Company (SRC) led by a certain Lt. Esguerra under the 1st Scout Ranger Batallion based in Cebu, the Jean Pelle Command added. “Silvestre Abiso, a member of the Special CAFGU Active Auxillary (SCAA) of Calatrava was positively identified by witnesses as one of the abductors. After a gruesome ritual of burning, slashing, mauling and castration, the 34-year old Clerigo was buried alive by the military in a narrow and shallow grave.”

The Jean Pelle Command also stated that “the SRC is being hosted by Ching-ching Ballesteros, a despotic landlord in Northern Negros.”

It also stated that the Task Force North “is resorting to terror campaign under the guise of civil military operations after its units failed to cripple the NPAs in the area despite  its massive military deployment and operations supported directly by Malacañang.”
 
“The intensification of counter-insurgency operations in Northern Negros is parallel with the massive landgrabbing and mining operations in the areas of ESTOCASA, the operational area of the Task Force North,” it added.
 
The Jean Pelle Command said that the military is “wrong in its purpose of sowing terror.” “They are wrong; their campaign only ignites the anger and hatred of the poor peasants, farmworkers, fisherfolks and other sectors including the middle classes; it also enflames the resolve of the Red fighters to fight and frustrate this open terror against the people,” it said.

“We call on all the revolutionary forces and the people in ESTOCASA and the Negrenses to unite and resist the state terror dubbed OBL II,” the Jean Pelle Command’s statement concluded. Bulatlat