10/05/2026
STATEMENT ON THE TOBOSO ENCOUNTER
A Call for Peace, Truth, and Healing
Three weeks ago today, Negros lost nineteen lives in Toboso. I have spent the days since listening. To families. To soldiers. To community leaders. To fellow Negrosanons who carry the weight of April 19 with us.
Whatever the circumstances, every one of those lives mattered. As a Negrosanon and as a public servant, I grieve with the families left behind.
I commend the men and women of the 79th Infantry Battalion, the 3rd Infantry Division, and the Armed Forces of the Philippines for their service across Negros, and the barangay officials and community members whose vigilance and cooperation make that service possible. They put themselves in harm’s way to protect our communities from a decades-old insurgency that has cost too many lives, displaced too many families, and stunted too much potential in our countryside. The work is hard and dangerous. The people of Negros know it.
Those who live in our barangays understand the true situation on the ground. The insurgency in Negros is not an abstraction debated in Manila or argued about online. It is a daily reality our farmers, teachers, and local officials live with. It is felt in fear, in displacement, in lost school days, in stalled livelihoods.
To the students, journalists, and researchers who come to Negros to study, document, and serve our communities, your work matters and you are welcome here. I ask only this: please coordinate with your academic institutions, the barangay, and the LGU. In parts of our province where the conflict remains live, coordination is a layer of safety. It is not a constraint on your work. We want you to be able to do what you came to do, and to go home safely.
I earlier filed a resolution for inquiry in aid of legislation, intended as a fact-finding measure. I will not push it forward. Multiple investigations are now underway by the proper authorities, including the Commission on Human Rights and the relevant agencies of government. The right course is to let these processes run their full course without political interference. Justice is best served by institutions doing their work, not by Congress getting ahead of them.
But peace in Negros will not be won by force alone. Our people need two things in equal measure: protection and new sources of livelihood. Where there is no opportunity, despair grows. And despair is what the insurgency feeds on. We have seen this pattern across generations.
The work ahead, in Congress and in our district, is to keep pushing for both. Stronger security where it is needed. And serious investment in agriculture, tourism, creative industries, and education, the things that give our young people a real future and leave no opening for any movement that promises them otherwise.
Let us choose peace. Let us seek truth. Let us heal together. And let us hold sacred the dignity of every Negrosanon, soldier and civilian alike.
