Urgent Alert
January 5, 2026
Global human rights group International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) expresses its utmost condemnation of the aerial bombardment and strafing conducted by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in Abra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro, that resulted in the massacre of three children and two youth.
Around 6 AM on January 1, combined forces of the 76th Infantry Battalion Philippine Army (IBPA), 68th IBPA and the 5th Scout Ranger Battalion conducted “strike operations” against members of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Sitio Mamara, Brgy. Cabacao, Abra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro. The military operation allegedly resulted in three encounters between government troops and the NPA.
Afterwards, local witnesses saw four AFP attack helicopters drop a total of 12 bombs and conduct aerial strafing in the area. The bombings killed three Mangyan-Iraya children and wounded their mother. It also caused the deaths of Jerlyn Rose Doydora, a researcher from a university in Manila, and one other youth researcher who died from injuries caused by the bombings.
Meanwhile, the civilian population and Mangyan-Iraya Indigenous People experienced severe trauma and distress from the bombings that lasted three hours. The bombs destroyed their crops, farmland, and reportedly killed two cows and three carabaos, severely affecting their livelihood. According to local government data, 769 individuals were forcibly displaced and evacuated in a local high school.
A team from local human rights group Karapatan Southern Tagalog has faced intense harassment, threats, and red-tagging from the AFP, Philippine National Police (PNP), and the local government in Mindoro. They are preventing the team from conducting a fact-finding mission in the affected areas to gather information on the impacts of the bombings on the civilian population.
The massacre of five individuals in Abra de Ilog adds to the long list of war crimes and human rights violations of the AFP against the people of Mindoro. Just last December 23, former mayoral candidate of Abra de Ilog and staunch anti-corruption campaigner, Monet Alcantara, was abducted from his home and charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives by state forces.
This followed the abduction and torture of a Mangyan-Iraya woman by the 76th IBPA on December 2, the killings of farmers Juan Sumilhig on August 1, 2025, and Hulyo Agtay on March 14, 2025, and the murder of Indigenous youth Jay-El Maligday on April 7, 2024. Even delegates of the International Solidarity Mission (ISM) team in Abra de Ilog last October 2025 who integrated with the Mangyan-Iraya Indigenous Peoples experienced harassment and intimidation by state forces.
The barbaric and overkill military operation of the AFP against a small unit of the NPA further exposes the desperation of its commander-in-chief Marcos Jr. to end the communist rebellion in the island to hasten the entry of huge mining companies and renewable energy projects. This is the reason why widespread militarization persists in Mindoro.
Below are some of the planned corporate projects, all in Abra de Ilog:
a) Mining operations of Agusan Petroleum after the government nullified the 25-year moratorium on mining in Occidental Mindoro;
b) The 375-megawatt Abra de Ilog Wind Energy Project planned to operate by 2031; and
c) The privatization of the Luyang Baga Cave in Brgy. Cabacao for ecotourism. The cave stands on ancestral lands of the farmers and the Mangyan-Iraya Indigenous People.
ICHRP calls for justice for all victims of the bombings perpetrated by the AFP in Mindoro. We condemn the AFP and Marcos Jr. government for grave violations of international humanitarian law and for endangering the lives of hundreds of civilians. We call for an end to the militarization in the island of Mindoro.
We are also calling for donations to support the humanitarian team that is currently conducting a fact-finding mission in the affected areas. You can send financial support through this link:
https://ichrp.net/donate/
