The People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty expresses its utmost solidarity with the people of Negros, especially the residents of Toboso in Negros Occidental, as we mark the fourth month since the Toboso 19 massacre.
PCFS joined last week’s National Solidarity Mission (NSM) in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental—organized as a follow-up to the independent National Fact Finding and Solidarity Mission (NFFSM) last May that revealed heinous state-perpetrated violations of human rights and international humanitarian law surrounding the Toboso 19 massacre, which happened on 19 April 2026.
The massacre took place in the course of an overkill military operation in Brgy. Salamanca, Toboso, killing nine civilians – two of whom are minors – and 10 members of the New People’s Army. The civilians included local farmer Roel Sabillo, community journalist RJ Nichole Ledesma, student leaders Alyssa Alano and Maureen Keil Santuyo, peasant researcher Errol Wendel, and Filipino-American human rights advocates Lyle Prijoles and Kai Dana-Rene Sorem.
According to the May NFFSM, the 79th Infantry Battalion of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) committed multiple war crimes. Not only were civilians killed and hundreds displaced; the mission found that the NPA members were hors de combat and killed defenselessly with lethal force, a grave violation of international humanitarian law. The remains of all massacre victims were also mishandled and desecrated, with Errol Wendel’s body still missing to date.
Toboso 19 adds to the growing list of state-perpetrated massacres in Negros that have earned it the moniker “massacre capital of the Philippines.” Majority of the documented massacre victims throughout the years were farmers.
Behind the massacres is the intensifying militarization in the guise of counter-insurgency faced by communities struggling against rampant landgrabbing and dire poverty. Beyond sugarcane haciendas that Negros is known for, farmlands are being grabbed and converted into palm oil plantations (6,600 hectares in Candoni), solar farms (1,250 hectares), mining, and other forms of development aggression. Around 64% of the province’s land is controlled by only 9% of landowners. Meanwhile, an estimated 464,000 hectares of land in Negros Occidental remain undistributed.
The stories shared by affected communities during last week’s NSM have painted the picture: the high poverty incidence and hunger in the region, especially among sugar farmworkers, and the presence of armed conflict are results of the failure to address the land issue in the area. Worse, state terrorism is being employed to further facilitate land concentration in the hands of the elite few and suppress resistance.
PCFS strongly condemns the ongoing and intensifying militarization in Negros, as well as the growing landgrabs taking place. We echo the call for justice not just for the Toboso 19 massacre, but for all massacres that have taken place without anyone held accountable until today. We are deeply concerned about the growing number of state-perpetrated violations of human rights and international humanitarian law not just in Negros but in many regions in the Philippines, as state terror has become the rule of law—further pushing rural people deeper into hunger and poverty. The Government of the Republic of the Philippines, helmed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and its military should be held accountable.
Around 150 from international, national, and local groups participated in the NSM, which happened on 18-19 August 2026. Manindigan Negros Island, Defend Negros network, and KARAPATAN mainly organized the event with the theme “Panghigugma, Pagdumdum, Pagpadayon: Pasidungog sa Negros 19” (Love, Remembrance, Perseverance: Tributes to the Negros 19). ###