Unanswered questions
But what were they doing in the encounter site?”
It’s a question that netizens have echoed from military authorities who had insisted that several fatalities in their alleged encounter with communist rebels on April 19 in Toboso, Negros Occidental, were not students and a community journalist doing research in the area but were actually armed combatants.
The incident drew widespread condemnation, with 19 dead and at least 653 people from 168 households displaced, Toboso Mayor Richard Jaojoco said of the 12-hour firefight that involved the Army’s 79th Infantry Battalion.
While the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has initiated an independent investigation on the incident, it has also raised pertinent questions on the military’s version of what the latter called an “intelligence-driven” encounter.
The CHR noted the inconsistencies in the identities of those dead that included an alleged squad leader of the New People’s Army (NPA), a farmer, University of the Philippines (UP) students Alyssa Alano and Maureen Keil Santuyo, community journalist RJ Nichole Ledesma, and Filipino-Americans Kai Sorem and Lyle Prijoles.
A dubious cover
Alano is a councilor of the UP Diliman University Student Council, and Ledesma, as a cultural worker, journalist, and regional coordinator for Altermidya in Negros Island. The UP Open University meanwhile identified Santuyo, an Associate of Arts student, as a “compassionate youth advocate working with marginalized agrarian communities.”
United States-based activist groups said Sorem and Prijoles traveled back to the country “to understand their roots and the society that forces many Filipinos to migrate, and choose to contribute to change,” according to Anakbayan-USA.
While the military asked the question foremost on the minds of those who see “community immersion” as a dubious cover to recruit students into the communist movement, rights groups have brought up several issues that have yet to be threshed out.
As noted by Rights Report Philippines, a nonprofit advocacy journalism organization that focuses on human rights, there were no official statements that the encounter site was an NPA camp. With residents being evacuated, it must be a residential area where civilians, including students, researchers, and community organizers, have every right to be.
Caught in the crossfire
Was the Red-tagging a convenient cover up for civilians unnecessarily caught in the crossfire, maybe even targeted? If the encounter was based on military intelligence, why the failure to identify the victims and the civilians? Were there photos and other evidence to back up the military’s claims? Answering these questions would do more to establish participation in the fighting than witness accounts that could be challenged—or discredited—in court, the group pointed out.
Another crucial issue is whether the conduct of the operation violated the International Humanitarian Law (IHL), where the Philippine military is a signatory, and which was enacted as a domestic law in 2009 through Republic Act No. 9851. Among the four principles of IHL that bind parties to it is distinction—or being able to distinguish between civilians and combatants—and attacking only the latter. Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited, and civilians are protected unless they directly participate in hostilities.
The death of several students in the encounter also highlights broader concerns on student activism, safety, and accountability in the academic community. While no one can dispute the need for thorough research as part of some academic requirements, nor doubt the commitment and sincerity of many young people who choose to live among the impoverished and the dispossessed after such research, there is no question either that such action exposes them unnecessarily to dangerous situations.
Academic freedom
Would it be too naïve then to ask academic institutions, local government units, and the military to draft acceptable guidelines or protocol that would govern the conduct of such in-depth research to ensure the protection and safety of students and researchers in such exercise? Surely, academic freedom and rigor can be compatible with firsthand studies meant to validate learnings inside the classroom.
In the same vein, can militant groups and leftist sympathizers reflect on and suggest alternative actions and paths where students can participate in societal change without losing their life in the process?
In the meantime, government should address allegations of unlawful killings or violations of the IHL, and exact accountability when merited. It should cooperate fully as well with the CHR investigation, preserve evidence, ensure unimpeded access to information and sites, and comply strictly with human rights standards.
Because in the end, the Toboso clash isn’t just about body count. Authorities must ensure an inclusive peace that addresses the root causes of our long-running insurgency problem, instead of merely looking at military solutions that only worsen the strife.
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