KARAPATAN expressed grave concern over the safety and security of civilians amid recent reports of intensified military operations by the Armed Forces of the Philippines in hinterland areas of Samar and Kalinga, as the human rights alliance reiterated its call for the military to pull out from rural communities.
In Gandara, Samar, up to 29 families or more than 80 individuals have evacuated from the villages of Marcos and San Miguel as of November 24, 2025 after a series of alleged gunbattles between the military and the New People’s Army (NPA) in the upland areas bounding the towns of Gandara and San Jorge. “The 8th Infantry Division of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP 8th ID) has announced that one rebel has been killed,” said KARAPATAN secretary general Cristina Palabay, “a claim that has to be verified given the current trend of ordinary peasants who have been killed extrajudicially being misrepresented by the military as NPA fighters killed in combat.” News reports have shown residents enveloped in fear amid the ongoing gunbattle.
In Sitio Pusol, Barangay Limot, Kalinga, the daily lives of villagers have been disrupted since the 103rd Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) occupied the community. The military has encamped in the area after four encounters between soldiers and the NPA occurred between November 21 and November 14, 2025. “Local residents fear that the occupation of their village is not just a result of this series of firefights, but due to their ongoing struggles against the construction of the Saltan hydropower project and their demands to raise the farmgate prices of palay and corn,” said Palabay. “The Saltan dam, in particular, will displace entire communities, destroy livelihoods and adversely impact the ecosystem. While there has been an impasse in its construction, militarizing the communities could be the government’s way of pressuring the locals to agree to the project.”
Palabay moreover warned against the AFP’s use of disproportionate force against the local populace, as it had done when it conducted aerial bombings in Abra and Ilocos Sur in 2024. “Karapatan will join peasant groups and human rights defenders in exposing and opposing similar actions by the AFP in Kalinga that violate human rights and international humanitarian law,” concluded Palabay.