MANILA — A ranking official of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict on Monday joined calls for accountability following the deaths of civilians in Negros Island reportedly linked to “spy-tagging” by New People’s Army (NPA) remnants.

Undersecretary Ernesto Torres Jr., executive director of NTF-ELCAC, cited reports from the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ 3rd Infantry Division showing that 28 civilians have been killed since March 2025 — averaging two fatalities per month.

“This pattern of killings is deeply alarming and morally indefensible. When two civilians are being murdered every month on one island alone, we are no longer speaking of isolated incidents, we are confronting a sustained campaign of terror,” Torres said.

The most recent victim, an elderly woman, was reportedly shot outside her home in Barangay Tapi, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, after being accused by the NPA of links to a previous clash between government forces and communist rebels.

Torres warned that labeling civilians as spies without due process effectively places targets on their backs. He cited the earlier killing of Leonor Anguit, an elderly civilian publicly accused of being a government informant.

“The killing of Lola Leonor Anguit shocked the conscience of the nation. An elderly woman — publicly vilified, then brutally silenced. That is not armed struggle. That is terrorism inflicted on one’s own people,” he said.

He also emphasized that the steady monthly fatalities reflect a troubling normalization of violence in communities already burdened by poverty and insecurity.

“Two civilians every month is not a statistic — it is a family shattered, a community traumatized, and a future stolen. Violence has no place in communities that are striving for peace and development,” Torres said.

Torres echoed the 3rd ID’s call for the Commission on Human Rights to conduct a thorough, impartial, and transparent investigation into the killings, stressing that human rights must apply equally to all citizens.

“Justice must never be selective. Silence in the face of these killings only emboldens further bloodshed. We stand with the families of the victims and demand accountability. The blood of civilians must never be trivialized as collateral to ideology,” he added.