In the early 2000s, government soldiers brutally killed a couple, Expedito and Manuela Albarillo, in a surprise attack on their home in San Teodoro, Mindoro Oriental. Their bodies, mutilated by the intense gunfire, were dragged out of their house by the perpetrators, later identified as Philippine Army soldiers commanded by then Col. Jovito Palparan Jr.
The husband and wife had both been active in people’s protests against the environmental destruction caused by mining in their locality. The crime, committed under Gloria M. Arroyo’s nine-year presidency, was one of the many heinous killings attributed to Palparan’s notorious counter-insurgency campaign in Southern Tagalog, for which he was denounced as “The Butcher.” He followed through his bloody campaign in Eastern Visayas, then in Central Luzon. It was for this that Arroyo later hailed him as “my General” during her State of the Nation Address at the House of Representatives, calling him to stand up in the gallery to be recognized and applauded.
Retired as major general, Palparan now serves a life imprisonment term at the National Penitentiary for one of his crimes.
Almost two decades later, under Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s watch, another activist couple, and their two children, have been killed in like manner in Negros Occidental.
On the night of June 14, Rolly and Emelda Fausto and their two young sons, Ben and Ravin, were massacred inside their home in Sitio Kangkiling, Brgy. Buenavista, Himamaylan City. Rolly’s body was found in a cornfield 50 meters away from the house, while those of his family were left at the scene.
Both times, the couples were reported to have been “red-tagged” by the military. The Faustos were active members of a peasant organization.
The massacre instantly spurred denunciations here and abroad, linking it to the intensified counterinsurgency campaign by state security forces and the NTF-ELCAC (National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict).
“Not only does this massacre demonstrate the barbaric evil of unchecked militarism, but also illustrates how red-tagging foreshadows extrajudicial killings and other violations of human rights and international humanitarian law,” said the Promotion of Church Peoples’ Response (PCPR).
As parishioners of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) Pro-Cathedral in Su-ay, Himamaylan, the Faustos had sought counsel from the church on how to defend themselves, the PCPR said. Rolly had even been forced to surrender allegedly as NPA member; he was tortured and made to act as a guide for military operations.
“Children and civilians are never legitimate targets of civil war. The heinous execution of Ben and Ravin chills to the bone for how sinister and immoral the government’s counterinsurgency program has become,” PCPR declared. “By all appearances, these little ones were killed as an example to other peasants that even their children will not be spared if they did not cooperate with the military and their dreadful NTF-ELCAC.”
“The landless farmers of Negros have been oppressed for generations,” PCPR further noted. Their demands for access to basic and social services and agrarian reform that addresses their landlessness and which underlines their poverty are “both righteous and just.” Their efforts include the organizing of farming cooperatives and other associations as an expression of their rights.
“Militarizing and terrorizing the peasants only further escalates unrest and distrust in the Marcos Jr. administration,” PCPR concluded. They called on the AFP to withdraw their forces from Negros immediately.
On June 22, the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) condemned the Fausto family massacre, decrying that since Marcos Jr. took office almost a year ago, 24 farmers have been killed by state forces in Negros Island.
ICHRP, which has conducted two fact-finding missions on human rights violations here, urged the Marcos Jr. administration to: 1) rescind former president Duterte’s Memorandum Order 32, which placed Negros under “virtual martial law;” 2) withdraw Executive Order 70, which created NTF-ELCAC and 3) repeal the Anti-Terrorism Act (ACT) of 2020, which “drives the red-tagging and subsequent political killings nationwide.”
The human rights coalition Karapatan has accused NTF-ELCAC “minions” for threatening to file charges against those who condemn the Fausto family massacre and for calling on the authorities to arrest those who joined a fact-finding mission (FFM) on the massacre.
“Such threats and intimidation are obviously frantic attempts to prevent the FFM from exposing the sordid truth behind the massacre,” said Karapatan. It referred to claims attributed to the NTF-ELCAC that those who spoke out against the massacre and those who would conduct the FFM were “out to obstruct justice because the official police and government investigations are ongoing.”
Yet those who made such threats, Karapatan added, “had nothing to say when the military had the gall to present its own dubious narrative, accusing Rolly Fausto of being an informer [against state security forces] and claiming that the red-tagging against him was all for show.”
“Clearly, their threatening words and actions are those of entities deathly afraid of the truth being unearthed,” the human rights monitor declared. (As this column was being written, the FFM was presenting its findings to the media).
Karapatan concluded its statement thus: “The Fausto family cries for justice, and we will not relent in ferreting out the truth and attaining justice and accountability for their death.”
Yesterday, The Philippine STAR reported, quoting the Western Visayas police spokesperson, Maj. Mary Grace Socorro Borio, that NPA rebels were responsible for the Fausto family massacre. Citing accounts of witnesses, Borio said, “The facts indicate categorically that members of the NPA terrorist group committed the killings.” Reportedly, up to 15 armed men were behind the killings.
On June 22, veteran journalist Inday Espina Varona tweeted (@rapplerdotcom) that Western Visayas NTF-ELCAC spokesperson, state prosecutor Flosemer Chris Gonzales, first alleged at a press briefing that the NPA was to blame for the massacre.
Curiously, Gonzales referred to a “unified stand” on the Fausto massacre by the AFP, the PNP, Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Locsin and Himamaylan City Mayor Raymond Tongson. It’s unclear what this “unified stand” means.
Published in Philippine Star
June 24, 2023
