Manila Today
Peasant groups and human rights advocates demanded for investigation of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on the brutal massacre of Fausto family known as the Himamaylan 4 which included Rolly, 50 years old, Emelda, 49 years old, as well as their children Ruben and Ben who are only 11 and 15 years old respectively.
Negros-based September 21 Movement reported that loud gunfire shots were heard within the community at 10PM. Witnesses then found Emelda along with her children were slain while they were sleeping in their hut in Sitio Kankiling, Brgy. Buenavista sa Himamaylan City, Negros last June 14. Rolly was also found dead in a sugarcane field near their home.
Human Rights Advocates Negros (HRAN) condemned the Charlie Company 94th Infantry Batallion as perpetrators of the merciless killing of Fausto family.
Accordingly, the family had been subjected to intense harassment from the military since March 22 last year.
It was when Emelda encountered a group of armed personnel roaming around their house as she returned from the laundry. Subsequently, she had undergone a series of intense interrogation and was even threatened by a knife. The soldiers then ransacked the house and slaughtered their chickens. She even found out that her P5,000, tucked in folded clothes, had been robbed.
On the same day, her husband Rolly had also been subjected to interrogation. The soldiers forcibly dragged him into a vacant hut at least 500 meters away from their hut. He was about to go home that time.
Once there, Rolly endured physical and mental torture—one that includes slapping and being kicked in the shoulders. He was further pressured to surrender as the military implied him a member of the New People’s Army (NPA).
While on May 15 this year, Emelda reported two separate incidents of their house being forcibly opened and ransacked. One including muddy footprints and that their belongings were scattered throughout the house.
Emelda was a member of the Baclayan, Bito, Cabagal Farmers and Farmworkers Association (BABICAFA), an organization of agricultural workers registered with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and accredited by the Himamalyan City government. The family was also church members of Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI), a church that has been subjected to red-tagging threats.
De Facto Martial Law in Negros
It was less than a year ago that surrounded areas and barangays in Himamaylan have been subjected to extensive and intensified military lockdown following an encounter between 94th Infantry Batallion and the Mount Canseermon Command of NPA.
To human rights groups, residents within the area which included Fausto family were victims of direct harassments from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, specifically the 94th IB.
Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas noted the four year-long, going five this November, implementation Memorandum 32 (MO 32) which imposed a de facto martial law in the provinces of Samar, Negros Oriental and Occidental, and Bicol region. It was then President Rodrigo Duterte who enacted the said order.
Former Duterte admin later enacted the Executive Order 70 or the whole of nation approach which established the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) alongside military operational programs such as focused military (FMO) at retooled community support (RCSPO).
KMP added that Negros island became a laboratory of state fascism with more than a total of 17 regular and special battalions which led to more than hundreds of farmers and activists were slain like Atty. Ben Ramos and rights activist Zara Alvarez.
The group noted that the massacre of Fausto family is not an isolated case among series of peasant massacres transpired in Negros in the past years including the Guihulngan massacre in 2017, Sagay massacre in 2018, and Negros 14 in 2018.
Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) added that state forces had even imposed a media blackout on the status of 15,000 evacuees while downplaying their assault on seven farm workers, strafing of 15 Tumandok households, and looting of civilian homes.
“Agri-workers worried the Fausto massacre marked the beginning of another spate of killigs on the island. At least 21 peasants have become victims of extrajudicial killings since Marcos came to power—and it seemed MO 32 was going to play the same murderous role,” UMA added.
