Troopers of the Philippine Army’s 74th Infantry Battalion opened fire on 11 farmers, including seven minors, in Barangay Osmeña, Palapag municipality in the province of Northern Samar, on 2 June, 2024. The farmers were at that time processing coconuts in the village. After the shooting, they were arrested and brought to the army headquarters.
Eluding responsibility for this crime and violation of international humanitarian law, the 74th IB concocted a false encounter with the New People’s Army (NPA)-Northern Samar on that day. The soldiers even lied when they declared they “rescued” minors who had been “food couriers” of the people’s army.
The 74th IB physically and mentally tortured the children while in their custody. They used the young captives as “hostages” or “bait” to pressure their parents to “surrender” despite there being only civilian farmers in the community.
The children were reportedly in the custody of the Municipal Social and Welfare agency, though the 74th IB have authority over their situation. Vilifying the children’s parents, the troops tried to turn the children against their relatives, hoping to train them as spies or assets for the army’s counterinsurgency campaign.
These are just the latest of a series of militarization operations relentlessly conducted by the 74th IB since January this year, in line with the Marcos regime’s desperate attempts to beat the deadline of destroying the revolutionary movement this year 2024.
In the first week of February, soldiers arrested a farmer, Sami Arnesto, in his home in Barangay Osmeña. They released him a month later as a “surrenderee”. Gabi Arnesto, Sami’s uncle, was shot while being forced to surrender. Soldiers had been forcing farmers’ families to attend meetings to “clear” their names up to May, 2024.
The 74th IB put the barangay under “lockdown”, forcing residents to sign “logbooks” to monitor their activities, prohibiting them to work on their fields at night and forbading them to bring uncooked rice, and forcing the stores to list down the villagers purchases of food and other items.
More than a dozen civilian residents of the barangay were successively arrested and detained at length in May and June in Barangay Osmeña to “clear” their names.
The army also fired artillery near the municipality’s fields, terrorizing the residents and destroying fields and forests.
