NTF-Elcac: Negros epicenter of NPA ‘spy-tagging’ killings

BACOLOD CITY—The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) on Tuesday disclosed that Negros Island has become the epicenter of alleged “spy-tagging” killings of civilians attributed to the Communist Party of the Philippines, New People’s Army and National Democratic Front of the Philippines (CPP-NPA-NDFP).

In a statement, NTF-Elcac Executive Director Undersecretary Ernesto Torres Jr. said that from 2021 to May 2026, at least 59 documented cases of spy-tagging killings and summary executions have been recorded nationwide, with 51 of these victims reported in the Negros Island Region—41 in Negros Occidental and 10 in Negros Oriental.

‘Kangaroo courts’

Torres called on the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to fulfill its mandate, demand accountability, and investigate the killings instead of allowing them to be obscured by propaganda.

“The CHR must … demonstrate equal resolve in condemning and investigating these executions. Human rights are not exclusive to armed rebels, activists, or ideological allies,” he said.

Torres added: “Human rights belong equally to poor farmers, church workers, tricycle drivers, laborers, former rebels, barangay officials, and ordinary civilians murdered in remote communities.”

He said data showed that of the 51 civilians killed in Negros over the past five years, 49 occurred between January 2025 and May 2026 alone, comprising 39 victims in Negros Occidental and 10 in Negros Oriental.

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Torres noted that nearly nine out of every 10 victims recorded nationwide from 2025 to the present were killed in Negros.

Spy-tagging killings occur when the victims were allegedly accused of being military “informants” and condemned by so-called “kangaroo courts,” leading to their executions.”