The government’s anti-insurgency task force on Friday, May 8, pushed back against claims that the April 19 encounter in Toboso, Negros Occidental was a massacre, urging the public to await the full forensic and official investigation before drawing conclusions.
In a statement, National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) Executive Director Ernesto Torres Jr. said the preliminary observations made by forensic pathologist Dr. Raquel Fortun “deserve to be received with respect, but also with sobriety, context, and patience.”
“As a forensic expert, Dr. Fortun herself knows the rigor required before any responsible conclusion can be made in a mass-casualty incident: crime-scene processing, cadaver recovery, preservation, identification, autopsy, ballistic examination, chain-of-custody review, witness accounts, operational records, and medico-legal correlation,” he said.
“These are not matters settled by partial findings on five bodies alone,” the retired Army general added.
Earlier, Fortun raised concerns over the military’s handling of bodies and evidence linked to the Toboso incident.
During a May 7 press conference at the University of the Philippines Diliman, Fortun presented initial findings from autopsies on five of the 19 fatalities, noting that the bodies were already badly decomposed when examined.
She cited several issues, including the alleged lack of proper crime scene investigation, misidentification of cadavers, and removal and discarding of victims’ clothing, which she said were important forensic evidence.
Fortun also revealed that the family of one of the deceased, Errol Wendel, allegedly received the wrong body.
Addressing these issues, Torres said questions involving body condition, wounds, and identification “do not automatically negate the existence of a legitimate encounter.”
“Her own reported findings do not establish a massacre. At most, they raise questions that must be answered through the official comprehensive report, which is expected to be released in due time,” Torres said.
On allegations of evidence mishandling, the NTF-ELCAC head noted that the recovery operation occurred in a “hazardous area” with threats of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), booby traps, and armed stragglers.
The volatility of the site was underscored when an independent fact-finding group later recovered an additional firearm, which Torres said “only underscores how dangerous and unsettled the area remained after the firefights.”
Meanwhile, on the reported body mix-up, Torres said it “should not be weaponized as proof of bad faith.”
“Based on available accounts, it stemmed from the identification and claiming process by relatives, not from any established intent to conceal evidence,” he explained.
The incident has also drawn scrutiny after authorities confirmed that two American nationals and two minors were among those killed.
The NTF-ELCAC earlier said the deaths reflected the NPA’s continued recruitment of youth and foreign nationals.
A House resolution seeking a congressional inquiry into the incident has been filed, and the NTF-ELCAC said it would welcome any investigation “anchored on evidence, objectivity, and the commitment to truth.”
“The full scientific and official findings should be awaited. When released, they will allow the public to judge the facts—not speculation, not propaganda, and not premature conclusions,” Torres said. (Martin Sadongdong)
