KARAPATAN condemned the aerial strafing of peasant and indigenous communities in Mansalay, Oriental Mindoro perpetrated by the 4th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) and the 203rd Infantry Brigade on March 1, 2025, saying this violates the principle of distinction in international humanitarian law which provides that parties to an armed conflict must “at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives.”
According to reports from Karapatan-Southern Tagalog, two Blackhawk helicopters strafed Sitio Lomboy in Barangay Panaytayan at around 10 a.m. The helicopters were back by 2:30 p.m. and dropped four bombs and unleashed machine gun fire on the three adjacent sitios of Lomboy, Abaka and Matarayo, damaging civilian property and disrupting the residents’ livelihoods and daily routine. Other sitios like Buol, Amaga, Tangkulang, Salay and Proper in Barangay Panaytayan; and Puyuhan and Badi in Barangay Teresita were reported to be similarly affected by the indiscriminate firing.
In April and May last year, Mangyan communities in Mansalay and Bansud, Oriental Mindoro were the site of focused military operations where villagers were restricted from getting food from their swidden farms and buying needed items from nearby stores. The military also imposed a curfew, banning residents from leaving their homes or going to their swidden farms beyond the specified time, and preventing them from making copra and charcoal, their main source of livelihood.
The aerial strafing incident this March in Mansalay town is the second in Oriental Mindoro this year and the fourth since October 18, 2022, when the military fired Howitzer shells near Barangay Waygan and Sta. Teresita, forcing around 6,000 residents, including Mangyan-Hanunuo indigenous peoples, to flee their homes and farmlands. On February 19, 2025, the community of Barangay Tagumpay in Pola town was strafed from the air by the 76th IBPA.
Karapatan has documented 46,921 victims in 19 bombing incidents since Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took power. Of the 19 incidents documented, 11 were perpetrated in 2024.
“We demand a stop to these bombings, strafings and shelling incidents and other brazen violations of international humanitarian law in Mindoro and many other areas in the country,” said KARAPATAN deputy secretary general Maria Sol Taule. “These have done nothing but wreak havoc on civilian populations,” she concluded.