May 5, 2026 | Bayan BC
On May 5, BAYAN BC and its allies led an indignation rally at the Philippine Consulate in Vancouver against the Armed Forces of the Philippines or the AFP’s massacre of 19 Filipinos, including 9 unarmed civilians, in the town of Toboso, Negros Occidental on April 19.
The groups held the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. accountable for the incident and, in tandem with the protest, submitted a letter to the consulate demanding an immediate and impartial investigation into the massacre.
The groups also requested that the consulate assist in setting up a memorial for the victims from May 11-15. However, the Consulate refused to denounce the massacre or even just to honor the victims.
“The consulate today proves they are just the overseas reactionary arm, choosing to label the international humanitarian law violations as a political matter. How is it a political matter when unarmed civilians are killed?” said Noa Sison, BAYAN BC representative, in a statement at the rally.
Reports state that the Philippine military operations conducted by the 79th Infantry Battalion killed 19 people and forcibly displaced 653 residents from 168 households in peasant communities in Negros Occidental on April 19, 2026. The deaths include two minors, a journalist, cultural workers, a university student leader, Filipino-American community organizers, and land rights activists.
However, the Philippine military has justified the civilian deaths by claiming that they were armed combatants of the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), and were supposedly killed in an armed encounter. This is despite the fact that the CPP has confirmed that only a small unit of the NPA were involved and the military’s own drone footage shows the killing of the unarmed individuals.
BAYAN, its formations across the world, and the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP), with support for Amnesty International, are thus leading an international campaign for an impartial inquiry. ###
For Reference:
Noa Sison, BAYAN BC Representative
Email: [email protected]