The Communist Party of the Philippines reported on 7 October that the Armed Forces of the Philippines committed several acts in violation of international humanitarian law in the last couple of weeks, including the killing of hors de combat and bombings of rural villages.

In the early hours of 30 September, four Red fighters of the New People’s Army were asleep when they were shot dead by troopers of the AFP’s 303rd Infantry Brigade in Manapla town, Negros Occidental province in the central Philippine island of Negros. The victims, Marilyn Badayos, Rudy Carbajosa, Ronilo Desabille and Rufino Bocaval were in the village recovering from the flu.

Juanito Magbanua, spokesperson of the NPA Negros Island Operations Command, belied the AFP’s fiction that there was “a gunfight that lasted for almost an hour.” Mabanua said, “The butchers entered the house during the early hours and mercilessly shot the comrades while asleep.”

On 21 September, Philippine Air Force aircrafts repeatedly dropped bombs in the rural village of Sta. Teresita, Cagayan Valley in northern Philippines, destroying farmers’ farmlands and livelihood. The number of those killed is yet unknown.

On 16 September, PAF aircrafts strafed and dropped six bombs on rural villages in Northern Samar. The bombings lasted for seven hours, forcing residents to evacuate to a nearby village. The following day, the PAF strafed and dropped bombs in another village in Bobon town, forcing the nearly 2,000 residents to evacuate to the town center.

In Camarines Sur on 12 September, NPA fighter Discorro L. Roma was subdued by elements of the Philippine Army’s 902nd Infantry Brigade before a gunfight ensued with Roma’s NPA unit. Family members, however, later recovered his lifeless body, bearing gunshot wounds, crushed skull, fingers and genitals, including contusions over the rest of his body.

Security forces of the Duterte government are escalating the use of drones, helicopters, and fighter jets for bombings and strafing against the NPA and people living in the countryside. The regime is spending billions of pesos to strengthen its ‘air superiority’ and to sow fear among the rural population.

These series of acts perpetrated by the AFP are prohibited under international humanitarian law protecting hors de combat and the civilian population. These also violate provisions of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law signed in 1998 by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines in the course of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations.