Party-list lawmakers filed two separate House resolutions on Monday, August 11, calling for congressional investigations into the killing of the Fausto family and the alleged militarization of farming communities in Negros.
House Resolution No. 136, filed by Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Party-list Rep. Antonio L. Tinio and Kabataan Party-list Rep. Renee Louise M. Co, urged the House of Representatives, through the committee on human rights, to probe the June 14, 2023, massacre in Sitio Kangkiling, Barangay Buenavista in Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental.
The attack left farmers Roly Fausto, 52; his wife Emelda, 51; and their children Ben, 14, and Ravin, 11, dead inside and around their home.
Human rights groups alleged that soldiers of the Army’s 94th Infantry Battalion had long harassed, red-tagged, and abused the Faustos, who were members of a local farmers’ association and the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI).
Witnesses claimed that armed men ransacked the family’s home on the night of the killings and accused them of supporting the New People’s Army (NPA).
Militarization?
Meanwhile, House Resolution No. 137, also filed by Tinio and Co., sought an investigation into reports of militarization in Negros, citing allegations of human rights violations under counterinsurgency operations.
The resolution cited a report from human rights group Karapatan, which documented numerous cases of alleged violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) across communities in northern to southern Negros.
These include illegal arrests, torture, indiscriminate firing, bombings, and lockdowns in farming communities.
The lawmakers sought to hold perpetrators accountable and address the surge in extrajudicial killings, harassment, and abuses in Negros, which they linked to intensified military operations following the issuance of Memorandum Order No. 32 in 2018—a directive reinforcing the guidelines for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) in implementing measures to suppress and prevent lawless violence.*
Reymund Titong is a Filipino journalist steadily building his voice in the field of news reporting, driven by a commitment to tell meaningful and relevant stories.
He serves as a correspondent for Rappler, maintains a personal blog on Medium, and is the communications officer of Hope Builders Organization Negros Island.