Mindoro: military attacks communist guerrillas, kills three children
The operation appears to be a response to an encounter between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the New People's Army (NPA). However, the latter had announced a Christmas ceasefire effective 25 December. A young Filipino American activist was reportedly caught up in the attack, which lasted several hours.
Manila (AsiaNews) – Controversy is raging in the Philippines over an operation by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), which struck farmers and indigenous Mangyan people under the pretext of attacking the New People's Army (NPA), which had declared a temporary ceasefire for 25 December.
The attack on 1 January took place in Abra de Ilog, Mimaropa region, Occidental Mindoro, western Philippines, resulting in the massacre of three children and two young people, this according to a statement by the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP).
The death of these five people “adds to the long list of war crimes and human rights violations of the AFP against the people of Mindoro,” the ICHRP press release reads.
“Around 6 AM on January 1, combined forces of the 76th Infantry Battalion Philippine Army (IBPA), 68th IBPA and the 5th Scout Ranger Battalion conducted ‘strike operations’ against members of the New People’s Army (NPA),” the statement goes on to say.
The military operation "reportedly led to three encounters" between government forces and communist rebels. Subsequently, local witnesses said that four AFP attack helicopters dropped 12 bombs, killing three children from Mangyan-Iraya and wounding their mother. Also killed were Jerlyn Rose Doydora, a researcher at a university in Manila, and another young researcher, who died from injuries caused by the strike.
Other residents, including Mangyan-Iraya indigenous people, reportedly suffered severe trauma and distress due to the bombing and strafing, which lasted over three hours.
The attack destroyed crops and farmland, and reportedly killed two cows and three carabaos (water buffaloes), severely impacting the community. According to local government data, 769 people were displaced or forcibly evacuated to a local high school.
In addition to the loss of life, there is concern for the fate of Chantal Anicoche, a Philippine-American who went missing following the airstrikes, at least four in total, which included the dropping of no less than 12 aerial bombs followed by aerial strafing.
The AFP claims the strike came in a response to an “encounter” with the paramilitary arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines, involved in a long-standing struggle with the Philippine state. It should be noted, however, that the NPA had declared a ceasefire effective 25 December 2025 to 1 January 2026.
Anicoche is a 25-year-old Filipino American woman who recently majored in psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), and a member of the Filipino American Student Association (FASA).
In the past few years, the young scholar closely studied the many problems of the Philippine migrant community, not neglecting some of the many unresolved issues in her country of origin, that involve the environment, agriculture, and Indigenous peoples.
Learning about migrants’ experiences helped Anicoche understand the economic hardship that led her parents to move to the United States.
In their statement, ICHRP activists described as "barbaric and overkill" the AFP’s action against a "small unit" of the NPA.
They warn that this is a sign of “desperation” on the part of the “commander-in-chief Marcos Jr. to end the communist rebellion in the island to hasten the entry of huge mining companies and renewable energy projects. This is the reason why widespread militarization persists in Mindoro.”
The ICHPR statement ends with a demand for justice “for all victims of the bombings perpetrated by the AFP in Mindoro” and “for an end to the militarization in the island of Mindoro.”
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21/04/2023
