Statement of The ILPS
The International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) vehemently condemns the fascist US-backed Philippine military’s brutal massacre of 19 people in the rural community of Barangay Salamanca, Toboso, Negros Occidental in the Visayas region of the Philippines. Among them were journalists, youth and student leaders, community researchers, human rights defenders, and peasant organizers Alyssa Alano, RJ Ledesma, Lyle Prijoles, Maureen Santuyo, Kai Sorem, and Errol Wendel, along with 13 other victims. This wretched atrocity is a vile escalation of the neocolonial Philippine government’s long history of war crimes under the tutelage of its US imperialist master. The League sends its deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims and shares the fury of the mass movement of workers, peasants, and all exploited people in the Philippines who are fighting to put an end to the inherently unjust system of exploitation and fascism that has long plagued the country.
On April 19, 2026, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) attacked the people of Barangay Salamanca, Toboso. In a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, the AFP ruthlessly killed 19 people, a majority of them civilians, through indiscriminate machine-gun firing and strafing. As usual, the military immediately labeled all the victims as members of the New People’s Army (NPA), the revolutionary army led by the Communist Party of the Philippines that has been waging a people’s war for national liberation and genuine democracy for the last 57 years. Freedom fighters and non-combatant activists are routinely falsely slandered as “terrorists” as a means to hide the Philippine government and AFP’s own rampant terrorism against the people in the form of sexual assault of women and children, hamletting and blockading of villages, land-grabbing and theft, illegal occupation of civilian households, and aerial bombardments of rural communities. These US-backed war crimes are standard operating procedures in the AFP’s all-out war against the Philippine revolutionary movement — a desperate attempt to maintain and protect the current system of rampant government corruption by the ruling class elite, in collusion with and in subservience to foreign imperialist economic interests and dictates.
The AFP alleged that they had a military encounter with the 19 people, yet their lies soon began to unravel as news emerged that of those killed, only a small squad were revolutionary fighters. The majority of the victims were civilians who were documenting a peasant activity alongside farmers who have faced long-standing land grabbing and systemic oppression. This inhumane massacre is yet another of countless instances in which the fascist AFP has deliberately targeted activists and civilians, and then tried to fabricate claims of “self-defense” to hide their bloodthirstiness. The attack forced over 650 residents of the community to be displaced and flee their homes.
This massacre coincided with the launch of the largest-ever annual US-PH Balikatan (“Shoulder-to-Shoulder”) military exercises in the Philippines, in which approximately 10,000 US troops are joined by 5 militaries from Japan, Australia, Canada, France, and New Zealand, along with an additional 17 observer nations, to carry out massive war drills across the archipelago in a provocative show of force against the US’s declared main strategic rival China. During these exercises, the US trains the Philippine military how to use the very weapons that the US sells to them on an annual basis, so that they can be readily commanded as front-line cannon fodder in a future war with China. But in the US build-up to imperialist war against China, it is everyday people who are routinely killed with US-provided weapons. Therefore, no war waged by the US or its puppet governments can ever be considered a just war, nor will such wars ever lead to genuine peace. It is the people fighting for national liberation, genuine social change, and justice for the most exploited people in society, such as the 19 martyrs of Toboso, who are truly dedicating their lives to bring about a just and lasting peace in the Philippines.
The ILPS joins arm-in-arm with the mass movement in the Philippines fighting for national democracy and just peace against the fascist state terror of the US-backed Marcos puppet regime. We echo the demand for an immediate and impartial investigation of the AFP’s bloody massacre in Toboso. The US-Marcos regime and fascist murderers must be held accountable for these appalling war crimes that are a blatant violation of international humanitarian law.
Justice for the victims of the Toboso massacre!
Stop the US-backed war crimes in the Philippines!
Signed,
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
