KARAPATAN condemned the latest spate of human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) in Negros island.
On the night of March 7, 2025, Noynoy Ponteras and Marisa Pobresa, both members of the New People’s Army (NPA), were reportedly abducted in Bacolod City by elements of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police (PNP-CIDG). According to alternative media outfit Paghimutad, Ponteras and Pobresa, both hors de combat, were tortured before being executed, in violation of IHL. Their bodies were later dumped in Sitio Paraiso, Barangay Caduhaan, Cadiz City which is almost 50 kilometers north of Bacolod City.
The military came up with a bogus story that Ponteras and Pobresa were allegedly killed in a gunbattle on March 8, 2025 between the NPA and the 79th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (79th IBPA). The AFP reportedly fabricated the story to claim a bounty on Ponteras’ head. In further violation of IHL, the families of Ponteras and Pobresa were harassed and intimidated when they tried to recover their loved ones’ bodies.
Meanwhile, in Himamaylan City in southern Negros, two brothers were illegally detained and severely tortured by elements of the 94th IBPA on the evening of March 7, 2025. According to the September 21 Movement-South Negros, farmer Alberto Piaduche and his brother were riding a motorcycle when they were waylaid by soldiers from the 94th IBPA in Sitio Tuyuman, Barangay Caradio-an.
The brothers, who were on the way to their workplace in Hinigaran town, were accused by the soldiers of being NPA members. They were loaded onto a pick-up truck and brought to the 94th IBPA’s headquarters in Caradio-an. The soldiers tried to force Alberto into admitting that he was NPA and that his house was being frequented by armed rebels. When he denied their accusations, the soldiers wrapped his head with a plastic bag and repeatedly kicked it. The beatings were done in full view of Alberto’s brother, who was made to watch from the pick-up truck. Alberto sustained severe head injuries that caused his eyes to bleed. A doctor who later checked on Alberto recommended that he undergo a CT scan due to the severity of his beatings. The two brothers were released only around midnight and warned against reporting the incident, or else their families would be killed.
Their families, however, decided to file a blotter report on the incident and called on the local government of Himamaylan to help them attain justice for the victims. According to the September 21 Movement, this is not the first time that the 94th IBPA vented their ire on civilians after meeting setbacks in the counter-insurgency war.
“Such violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, especially in places like Negros island, have now become a trademark of Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s regime,” said KARAPATAN secretary general Cristina Palabay. “Negros, Samar and Bicol were earmarked for heightened militarization through Rodrigo Duterte’s Memorandum Order No. 32, which Marcos Jr. continues to implement. We demand a stop to this deplorable continuity in fascist policies from Duterte to Marcos Jr.”