Urgent Alert
January 2, 2025
The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) strongly condemns the cold-blooded murder of farmer-leader Warlita Jimenez in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental last December 23, 2025. The killing occurred during the Christmas season in the country when Filipino families gather and hold celebrations.
According to witnesses, the 55-year old Jimenez was inside her home in Sitio Makilo, Brgy. Camansi when two armed men clad in bonnets forcibly broke inside at 11 PM. They heard Jimenez scream for help while the assailants fired four shots and quickly fled the scene. Local human rights groups suspect that the 15th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) are responsible for the killing. If proven, the murder constitutes grave violations of international humanitarian law (IHL).
Jimenez is the wife of slain peasant leader Joseph Jimenez who, along with National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) consultant Ericson Acosta, was summarily executed in 2022 by elements of the 94th and 47th IBPA in the same barangay. The Jimenez couple were both leaders of local peasant organization Paghiliusa sang mga Magagmay nga Mangunguma kag Mamumugon sa Brgy. Camansi (Unity of Small Farmers and Workers in Brgy. Camansi) or PAMMACA.
PAMMACA is currently facing a land dispute against the Sola landlord family, a struggle they share with peasants in Kabankalan since the 1940s. The Solas own vast haciendas and are known to hire armed goons to threaten and harass farmers who assert their rightful claims to about 140 hectares of lands covered by agrarian reform in the locality.
Jimenez has been subjected to relentless red-tagging, threats, and harassment by state forces since the killing of her husband in 2022. She along with other Camansi residents have been forced to surrender as members of the New People’s Army (NPA). Her strong and long-time advocacy for land rights in their barangay have put her in the crosshairs of the Marcos Jr. regime’s fascist machinery.
The killing of Jimenez further exposes that Marcos Jr.’s National Action Plan for Unity, Peace, and Development (NAP-UPD) rings hollow in its rhetoric of so-called peace. It is nothing but a regurgitated counterinsurgency plan hellbent in crushing legitimate dissent from the people through a violent all-out war, especially against civilians.
ICHRP enjoins the international community to amplify the call for justice for the killing of Warlita Jimenez. We call on Philippine authorities to immediately launch an investigation, hold the perpetrators accountable, and put an end to the spate of peasant killings and militarization in Negros island.
We also reiterate our call to abolish the NTF-ELCAC as the chief implementor of the Marcos Jr.’s brutal US-backed counterinsurgency program.
