CHR: Kin of 3 ‘Negros 19’ fatalities seek autopsies

University of the Philippines (UP) community stage a walk out at the university campus in Diliman, Quezon City on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, to call for justice for the Negros 19 massacre which claimed the lives of UP student leaders Alyssa Alano and Maureen Santuyo, RJ Ledesma, an alternative journalist, Errol Wendel, a peasant organizer, Kai Sorem and Lyle Prijoles, both Fil-AM activists. On April 19, 2026 during a military operation, the Philippine Army claims killing 19 suspected anti-government fighters in Sitio Sinugmawan, Barangay Salamanca, Taboso, Negros Ocidental. —INQUIRER PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

The families of at least three of the 19 alleged New People’s Army (NPA) members who were killed in an encounter with the military in Toboso, Negros Occidental, on April 19 have requested the exhumation and postmortem autopsies of their kin, a Commission on Human Rights (CHR) official said on Thursday.

CHR Commissioner and spokesperson Beda Epres told reporters in an interview in Bacolod City that the families of Errol Wendel, Joros Caramihan and Labskie Enustacion wanted to determine where the victims were hit by bullets, which will form part of the CHR investigation.

The CHR is waiting for clearance from the Toboso municipal health office for the exhumation before sending a team from its forensic division, Epres said.

According to him, they are investigating the claims of human rights groups that six civilians were among the “Negros 19” fatalities and the CHR conducted interviews with people in the locality to determine if they were civilians or combatants.

“If we establish that there were civilians, then that is a clear violation of the international humanitarian law,” Epres said.

“We want to conduct an independent investigation based on evidence gathered on the ground,” he added.

Forensic examiners of the Philippine National Police said on Thursday that 11 of the 19 cadavers recovered from the encounter site in Toboso tested positive for gunpowder residue, suggesting they may have recently fired firearms.

Positive for gunpowder

“Out of the 19 bodies, 11 were found to be positive for gunpowder. Although there is a follow-up test, it’s still an indication,” Col. Reynaldo Calaoa, chief of the PNP regional forensic unit in the Negros Island Region, said in a briefing at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

But he explained that negative results do not necessarily mean a person did not discharge a firearm, citing several factors that could affect forensic testing.

“There are what we call false negatives,” Calaoa said. “One factor is if the bodies were immersed in water. Most of them were submerged, meaning their hands got wet.”

Investigators also recovered spent cartridge cases from several areas identified by authorities as encounter sites, he told reporters.

Calaoa said the evidence gathered from different locations was consistent with reports that multiple armed encounters took place in the area.

The Philippine Army has maintained that all 19 fatalities were communist combatants who died in a legitimate armed encounter.

Fact-finding mission

Members of a national fact-finding and solidarity mission, however, said that six of those killed were civilian peasant advocates and organizers.

At a press briefing on May 15 in Bacolod City, Karapatan deputy secretary general Sol Taule identified the six, based on witness testimonies, as Wendel, RJ Ledesma, Alyssa Alano, Maureen Santuyo, Lyle Prijoles and Kai Sorem.

Taule said more than 100 human rights advocates, Makabayan lawmakers, church workers and activists joined the mission conducted on May 14 in Sitio Sinugmawan and Sitio Plaringding in Barangay Salamanca, Toboso.

The mission found a “high probability” that the crime scene had been tampered with and that evidence may have been planted, she added.