KARAPATAN condemned the spate of rights violations this June that have victimized a civilian couple in Bukidnon, a community of farmers in Camarines Sur and a Cagayan province-based human rights lawyer.

In Sitio Mahayag, Barangay St. Peter, Malaybalay, Bukidnon, trigger-happy troopers of the 88th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) shot at a couple at 10 a.m. of June 15, 2026, killing the Lumad woman and wounding her husband. Nenita Buscada and her husband had been gathering firewood to sell to earn money for their child’s school needs. The soldiers claimed that they shot at the couple after seeing them armed with an M14 rifle with a scope. They later said that the alleged firearm was a .22 cal rifle. It turned out that all the couple were carrying was firewood. The local tribe to which the couple belonged is demanding a fair, transparent and independent investigation of the shooting, which the Philippine Army alleges is a case of mistaken identity.

“The killing of Buscada and the frustrated killing of her husband, along with several other documented cases of killings and frustrated killings through strafing and indiscriminate firing, show the explicit pattern of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, which are most often committed in rural and indigenous communities,” said Cristina Palabay, KARAPATAN secretary general.

KARAPATAN also received recent reports on the harassment and surveillance of NUPL-Cagayan Valley coordinator Atty. Catherine Dannug-Salucon. A man who identified himself as Fernando Gopilan claimed to be Salucon’s nephew and recently attempted to gain access to her Quezon City residence. He left in a hurry after Salucon’s daughter denied that he is a relative.

Surveillance and harassment against Atty. Salucon remain rife, despite the Supreme Court’s issuance of a writ of amparo for her in January 2018. She had sought protection from the courts in 2015 after being subjected to surveillance and harassment by suspected state agents. The court-issued writ has not been able to protect her, however, as she has reported that a police officer in her hometown in Isabela has boasted of being assigned to conduct surveillance on her.

Meanwhile, in Sitio Mainit, Barangay Balogo, Pasacao, Camarines Sur, residents were forced to evacuate on June 18, 2026 when live fire exercises were conducted by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Australian Armed Forces under the KASANGGA Exercises. “The joint military exercises, which involved the use of heavy weapons and live ammunition, not only endangered the lives of residents, but disrupted their livelihoods and normalized the militarization of civilian communities,” KARAPATAN said.

These incidents, reported in disparate places, said Palabay, show the prevalence of human rights violations across the country and the need to demand a stop to militarization in both rural and urban areas.

“The bloody record of the AFP as the foremost violator of human rights and international humanitarian law is in full view. As Marcos Jr. harps on the so-called accomplishments of his corrupt and anti-poor administration in his fourth year in office, calls to hold him equally accountable for his puppetry to the US as well as his fascist governance continue to mount,” Palabay concluded. (23 June 2026)

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