Local journo among dead in Negros Occidental clash
BACOLOD CITY—Community journalist RJ Nichole Ledesma was among 19 people killed in a clash between government soldiers and suspected New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in Negros Occidental province on Sunday, Altermidya Network confirmed on Wednesday.
The Philippine Army earlier reported that Sunday’s series of armed encounters with supposed NPA remnants resulted in 19 rebels slain, but it has yet to release the full list of fatalities.
Altermidya, in a statement on Wednesday, said it mourns the killing of Ledesma, writer and editor of Paghimutad Negros Island Alternative Media and its coordinator in the region, from Sunday’s incident.
Ledesma, 30, was killed in a supposed military operation at Barangay Salamanca in Toboso town, but he was in the area doing community work and immersion, reporting on the effects of renewable energy projects on farming communities, Altermidya said.
It identified Ledesma as a community journalist, editor and poet, a career path he chose after his stint as student leader and campus writer.
He served as editor in chief of Spectrum, the student publication of the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod, where he graduated with a degree in psychology. Since 2020, he led Paghimutad Negros, an alternative media outfit focused on human rights reporting and grassroots storytelling.
He later joined Altermidya as coordinator for the Negros Island Region.
‘Highest honor’
Ledesma’s recent work documented the struggles of communities facing displacement due to large-scale renewable energy projects, including the expansion of solar farms, windmill installations and hydropower ventures, Altermidya said.
He also reported on reclamation projects in Bacolod City, the expansion of a palm oil plantation in Candoni, and the conditions of “sakada” (farm laborers) and sugar farmworkers, it added.
Paghimutad Negros, the community media outfit that Ledesma led, had long been subjected to Red-tagging and vilification, the group said.
Human Rights Advocates Negros said Ledesma was not in the initial clash site at Sitio Sinugmawan in Barangay Salamanca. He was attacked in a separate community at Sitio Plariding during a pursuit operation by government troops also on Sunday.
“We give the highest honor to our colleague RJ, who until his last breath served marginalized communities by immersing and reporting on their stories. Together with his family and colleagues, we demand justice for RJ Ledesma,” Altermidya said.
Ledesma was the seventh nominee of the Kabataan party list in the 2022 elections.
The Inquirer on Wednesday reached out to the Army but had yet to receive a response.
In October 2022, the Facebook page of the Philippine Army’s 303rd Brigade called one of Paghimutad’s human rights reports as “propaganda” and linked it to the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. The post circulated across police and military platforms, including the Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict in Western Visayas, Altermidya said.
Paghimutad also reported on coordinated attacks against the radio program “Kaling Kag Tugda,” as well as cases of journalists in Negros being profiled or followed by suspected government intelligence agents. It stressed that these efforts aimed to hide from the public the worsening human rights violations in their communities, it added.
