KARAPATAN strongly condemns the reported killing of a youth in Northern Samar by soldiers. Jerick Jugal, a resident of Barangay Sulitan, Catubig town was allegedly killed with another individual in an encounter between the 20th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) and the New People’s Army (NPA) on November 5, 2024 in Catubig. As in many other cases, the soldiers falsely claimed that Jugal was an NPA rebel.
Jugal’s fellow villagers, however, aver that he is a civilian and his family’s sole breadwinner. Residents of Barangay Sulitan and surrounding communities moreover assailed the restrictions that have been imposed by the military on the villagers who are reportedly prohibited from leaving their homes to engage in their livelihoods and going to the town center to buy food and their families’ other needs. The military forces in the area are led by 20th IBPA chief Lt. Col. Richard Villaflor.
To mollify the villagers’ anger, the 20th IBPA and members of the Municipal Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (MTF-ELCAC) distributed relief goods to residents of Barangay Sulitan and the adjacent village of Magtuad on November 10.
“Jerick Jugal is not the first civilian to be killed by soldiers and later made out to be an NPA rebel,” said KARAPATAN secretary general Cristina Palabay. “In fact, most victims of extrajudicial killings (EJK) are civilians falsely portrayed by the military to be members killed in alleged gunbattles,” she added. “EJKs by the military or police using the fake encounter narrative remains the leading major human rights violation under the Marcos Jr. regime, claiming up to 77 lives from July 2022 to June 2024.”
“The body count in Marcos Jr.’s counter-insurgency war continues to mount as his military forces chase a US-imposed year-end deadline to crush the NPA,” added Palabay.
“KARAPATAN fully supports the family and fellow villagers of Jerick Jugal in their demands for justice and accountability for his killing and for an end to the militarization of their barangay and all the unjust restrictions attendant to this,” she concluded.