RJ NICHOLE LEDESMA, a 30-year-old editor and poet, and student scholar-leader Alyssa Alano were among the 19 fatalities in the series of “military encounters” with suspected members of the communist rebels in Barangay Salamanca, Toboso town, Negros Occidental.
The identities of the two fatalities were only known on April 22 following the clash with the remnants of the dismantled Northern Negros Front of the New People’s Army.
Several rights and student organizations however belied the reports that the two fatalities were members of the suspected communist group operating in the Negros Island Region.
“RJ was killed in a supposed military encounter…But he was in the area doing community work and immersion reporting on the effects of renewable energy projects – including solar farm expansion and windmill projects – on vulnerable farmer communities,” Altermidya, a national network of independent and progressive media outfits, said on April 22.
“Human Rights Advocates Negros said RJ was not in the initial clash site in Sitio Sinugmawan. According to the group, he was instead attacked in a separate peasant community in Sitio Plariding during an ensuing military pursuit operation,” it added.
Ledesma, regional coordinator of Altermidya in Negros Island, was known as a community journalist and served as editor‑in‑chief of Spectrum, the student publication of the University of St. La Salle–Bacolod, where he finished a Psychology course.
The University of the Philippines Diliman University Student Council in capital Manila also condemned the death of Student Councilor Alano, saying she was “an innocent civilian.”
Alano, who was the Education and Research councilor of the Student Council, “lived and learned among our farmer siblings from Negros to know their true situation in the face of land grabbing, exploitation, and militarization.”
“Councilor Alano saw and understood the importance of using her intelligence and strength to fight for the rights of students and basic sectors, especially amid the worsening economic crisis,” the university student council said.
“Alyssa was an excellent, diligent, loving, and noble student leader and a true child of the nation,” it added.
Risks facing mediamen, activists
Meanwhile, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines maintained that “while we wait for the results of a fact-finding mission in Negros Occidental, we stress that Ledesma was a journalist — a duty that he had taken up even as a student at the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod, where he was editor-in-chief of student publication.”
“His death, along with that of UP USC Councilor Alyssa Alano and several others, in a military operation illustrates the risks that community journalists, activists, and rights defenders face in doing their work in conflict-prone areas,” NUJP said in a statement.
“The news is extremely enraging and heartbreaking,” another community journalist, who requested anonymity, told SunStar Philippines on April 23.
The source also commended Ledesma’s “sincere service to the masses so their stories could be told”, adding that he would not be forgotten.
As this developed, Army Spokesperson Col. Louie Dema-ala set the record straight on the said military operation, saying: “Recent claims circulating on social media that those killed in the encounter in Toboso, Negros Occidental were merely researchers, journalists, student leaders, and social workers, and that the Philippine Army violated human rights and International Humanitarian Law—deserve closer scrutiny rather than outright acceptance.”
“While any loss of life is deeply concerning and warrants proper investigation, it is also important to address a fundamental question: ‘bakit sila nasa mismong encounter site, armado, at nakikipagbarilan sa mga sundalo (Why were they at the encounter site itself, armed, and exchanging fire with the soldiers)?’ This is not a trivial detail that can simply be ignored or dismissed,” the Army spokesperson said on April 22.
“The presence of firearms and active participation in an armed confrontation raises serious doubts about the narrative being pushed online. Our troops showed steadfast commitment to their mission and dedication to duty,” he added.
Amid the decades-old insurgency problem in the Negros Island Region, San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza said that “when young people take up arms, or are drawn into movements, we must ask what conditions made that path seem meaningful, or even necessary.”
“This painful incident reveals something deeper about our shared reality…. Violence does not arise in a vacuum. It takes root where wounds have long been left unattended – where poverty persists, where injustice is endured, where trust between people and institutions has been broken, and where hope in peaceful change has slowly faded,” Alminaza said in his pastoral letter. (Ronald O. Reyes/SunStar Philippines)
