The Toboso encounter of April 19, 2026, also referred to as the Toboso killings, Toboso clash, Toboso incident, or, in some accounts, the Toboso massacre, was an armed confrontation between the 79th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (79IB PA) and the Northern Negros Front of the New People's Army (NPA NNF) in Salamanca, Toboso, Negros Occidental, which resulted in the deaths of ten NPA members and nine civilians, who are collectively referred to as the "Toboso 19".
The civilians included University of the Philippines students Alyssa Alano and Maureen Keil Santuyo, poet and journalist RJ Nichole Ledesma of Paghimutad-Negros, community researcher Errol Wendel, and American activists Lyle Prijoles and Kai Dana-Rene Sorem.
The operation also resulted in the death of Northern Negros Front commander Roger Fabillar, who was being pursued by the 79IB and had a bounty of for his arrest or neutralization at the time of his death.
The NPA later acknowledged ten of the fatalities, including Fabillar, as having been its armed revolutionaries, but asserted that the remaining nine individuals, Alano, Santuyo, Ledesma, Wendel, Prijoles, Sorem, local resident Roel Sabillo, and two minors, were civilians.
The incident raised concerns within the Philippine public, particularly among civil society groups and the press, that civilians had become targets of the practice of "red-tagging" and that individuals were being effectively criminalized simply by their presence in certain locations. Comparisons were specifically drawn to the case of botanist Leonard Co, who was killed in 2010 in Kananga, Leyte, while gathering botanical samples for a biodiversity project of a renewable energy company.
On August 2026, the 44-page investigation report of the National Fact-Finding and Solidarity Mission (NFFSM) was released, confirming that the military "fired indiscriminately" in the incident. The mission report flagged serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws. It found that the soldiers from the 79th Infantry Battalion (IB) had a clear view of the scene and could distinguish between those who were armed and firing back, and those who were unarmed. Despite this, the mission found that the military still fired indiscriminately at whoever they saw in the area, resulting to the murder of 9 Filipino civilians (Alano, Santuyo, Ledesma, Wendel, Prijoles, Sorem, Sabillo, and two minors) who were never involved with communist combatants.
Background New People's Army conflict
The Toboso incident took place in the context of the ongoing conflict between the Philippine government and the Marxist–Leninist–Maoist New People's Army (NPA).
Duterte termination of peace talks The Philippine government had been undertaking new offensives against the NPA since November 2017, when President Rodrigo Duterte terminated the various rounds of peace talks which had been ongoing between the government and the NPA since the late 1980s.
Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 and establishment of NTF-ELCAC This led to the 2018 establishment of an agency called the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) through Executive Order No. 70., and the Duterte administration's labeling of the NPA as a terrorist organization under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.
On December 9, 2021, the Supreme Court of the Philippines struck two provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act as unconstitutional: firstly, the second paragraph of Section 25 which would have allowed the automatic adoption of foreign jurisdictions or international organizations to define "terrorists" or "terror groups"; and a qualifier under Section 4(e) which would have allowed "advocacy, protest, dissent and similar actions" to be defined as terror acts if alleged to be "intended to cause death or serious physical harm to a person, to endanger a person’s life, or to create a serious risk to public safety.” The court declared this provision "overbroad and violative of freedom of expression," and so the section now says that terrorism "shall not include advocacy, protest, dissent, stoppage of work, industrial or mass action, and other similar exercises of civil and political rights." Local and International Human Rights Groups such as Amnesty International, however, expressed concern that the law "remains dangerous and fundamentally flawed."
AFP strategic counterinsurgency plans Since the promulgation of the Anti Terror Act in 2021, the Armed Forces' offensives against the NPA have been defined by two strategic plans: the Development Support and Security Plan (DSSP) "Kapayapaan" from 2017 to 2022, and the AFP PLEDS (Peace, Law Enforcement, and Development Support) Plan "Pagkakaisa" since 2023, which is intended to be in force until 2028.
These strategic plans are characterized as "whole-of-government" or "whole-of-nation" approaches, particularly focusing on engaging local government units and local chief executives to achieve their strategic goals and sustain them.
In his 2025 State of the Nation Address, Bongbong Marcos claimed that there were "no more guerilla groups in the country," echoing earlier claims of success from the AFP after focused military operations, the targeting of leaders, and the constriction of lines of support, although media groups such as Vera Files point out that a high number of encounters, which saw 146 alleged NPA killed between January to November 2024, was an indication of the continued existence of the organization.
Human rights in the Philippines
The Philippine government ratified the Geneva Conventions, which set standards for humanitarian conduct in times of war and local or international armed conflict, and signed into law the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity. The government also signed the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. These laws provide for the protection of civilians, including media workers, medical personnel, religious personnel, humanitarian workers, and hors de combat, or combatants rendered incapable of participating in hostilities.
Media killings in the Philippines
The Philippines is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, ranking 114th out of 180 in the 2026 in the World Press Freedom Index of the Reporters Without Borders. Colleagues of RJ Ledesma assert that evidence against him may have been planted. Altermidya said that a photo of Ledesma with a gun, ammo pouch, and bandolier appeared to have been staged, while boots and other belongings presented as evidence appeared unused.
The National Union of Journalists in the Philippines held a protest action in May 2026 calling for justice in the killing of Ledesma and for the release from detention of Tacloban-based community journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio.
Negros killings
Circumstances relating to the Toboso incident have been compared to a history of violent attacks in Negros. The Toboso incident has been compared to the 2023 Fausto massacre, in which Roly and Emelda Fausto and their two children were killed in their home in Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental, and the 2018 Sagay massacre, during which gunmen killed nine sugarcane farmers, including four women and two children, in Sagay, Negros Occidental. Alyssa Alano, at the time of her killing, was conducting a study on the effects of land grabbing and militarization on the farmers of Negros. Following the Toboso incident, Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (Union of Agricultural Workers) described Negros as the "massacre capital of human rights and international humanitarian violations".
Dismantling of the NPA's Northern Negros Front On April 6, 2021, the joint security forces issued a joint resolution declaring that the Philippine Army's 79th Infantry Battalion (79IB) already dismantled the Northern Negros Front (NNF) of NPA. Twenty-five of the 26 insurgency-cleared villages in Negros Occidental by July are located in the northern part.
The 79IB, based in Sagay, covers mainly the three districts comprising the northern part of the province as well as Bacolod. Meanwhile, the NNF is part of the NPA's Komiteng Rehiyon-Negros, Cebu, Bohol and Siquijor.
However, remnants of the front in northern Negros were trying to regain their lost territory, being figured in clashes with government troops in Silay, Manapla and Calatrava within a year thereafter and suffering further casualties on their side.
Manhunt for Fabillar In 2023, a manhunt was launched by the 79th Infantry Battalion for the "arrest or neutralization" of Roger Fabillar, the leader of the NPA's Northern Negros Front.
Fabillar -- whom the 303rd Infantry Brigade alleged to be a "hitman" who was "tasked with carrying out special operations" -- faced murder cases in northern Negros for his and the NNF's alleged involvement in the alleged summary execution in Calatrava, Toboso, and Escalante of at least 36 civilians accused of being military informants since 2025. The Philippine Army additionally alleged that Fabillar was involved in arson and extortion as well.
The 79IB offered a ₱1-million cash reward; the 303rd Infantry Brigade later asserted that a ₱2-million bounty for Fabillar's arrest or neutralization had been put up by private individuals.
Events
While full details of the encounter have not yet been fully uncovered, a few details have found their way into media reports, as reports both sides revealed some details.
April 6 clash On April 6, the Army's 79IB clashed twice with Fabillar's group in Barangay Minautok, Calatrava, injuring a soldier.
April 19 encounter A second encounter between the 79IB and the NPA NNF occurred on April 19 at the temporary encampment by the NPA in Sitio Sinugmawan, Barangay Salamanca, Toboso, with the 79IB claiming to be acting based on information from local residents.
The initial firefight broke out at around 3:58 a.m. Eight clashes against the NNF remnants took place in Sitio Sinugmawan and Sitio Plaringding between that time and 3 p.m. of the same day.
Ledesma's employer, Altermidya-People's Alternative Media Network, noted in an April 22 statement that Ledesma "was not in the initial clash site in Sitio Sinugmawan," and that he was instead "attacked in a separate peasant community in Sitio Plariding during an ensuing military pursuit operation." It said that Ledesma had been doing "immersion reporting on the effects of renewable energy projects – including solar farm expansion and windmill projects – on vulnerable farmer communities."
A 79IB soldier was brought to a hospital in Bacolod for treatment after sustaining two gunshot wounds, one in each arm.
The 79IB said that it recovered 19 assorted firearms during the operation.
Evacuations Toboso mayor Richard Jaojoco reported that the clashes forced the evacuation of 167–168 families or 653 individuals from the adjacent villages of Salamanca and San Jose, being brought to two schools. Escalante mayor Melecio Yap reported that more than 200 residents near the Escalante–Toboso boundary evacuated as a precaution.
April 22 arrests Some suspected communists were able to escape following the Toboso encounter. On April 22, five of them were arrested by security forces in Talisay, including two high-ranking squad leaders—the NNF squad leader who had been the Negros Island Region's top 2 most wanted person; and a leader of a unit under the Central Negros Front 2. Firearms and explosives were found in their possession.
Aftermath Retrieval of bodies and identification of fatalities