The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), together with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP), on Friday rejected attempts to portray the 19 April encounter in Toboso, Negros Occidental as a massacre, declaring that all 19 individuals killed in the operation were armed combatants engaged in a legitimate firefight with government forces.

During a joint national press conference on Thursday, government officials presented forensic findings, crime scene evidence, recovered firearms, operational reports, and even admissions from the Communist Party of the Philippines–New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) itself, which they said collectively dismantle narratives claiming that several fatalities were merely civilians, farmers, or researchers.

“This was a legitimate armed engagement. Facts, evidence, and forensic science overwhelmingly support that conclusion,” NTF-ELCAC Executive Director Ernesto C. Torres Jr. said.

3rd Infantry Division Commander Michael Samson emphasized that government troops encountered armed individuals during combat operations and had every reason to treat them as enemy combatants.

“Our soldiers do not choose whom they meet in battle,” Samson explained, noting that the identities of those killed were only established after the encounter had ended. He added that troops repeatedly called on members of the armed group to surrender, but those opportunities for peace were ignored.

Samson also clarified that regardless of previous occupations or affiliations, any individual found armed and actively participating in combat is considered a combatant within the operational context of an armed encounter.

One of the most significant pieces of evidence presented during the briefing came from Reynaldo Calaoa, who disclosed that 11 out of the 19 fatalities tested positive for gunpowder residue.

Authorities stressed that the findings were even more compelling considering that several bodies remained exposed to seawater and recurring high tide for nearly 24 hours before recovery and examination.

Experts explained that gunshot residue is highly susceptible to degradation due to washing, saltwater immersion, sand abrasion, wave action, and body movement during retrieval operations.

“Despite those extraordinary conditions, a majority still tested positive. That is powerful forensic evidence supporting the reality of an active firefight,” Torres said.

Officials also rejected claims that the eight who tested negative for paraffin tests could automatically be classified as non-combatants, explaining that a negative result is not proof that an individual never fired a weapon.

The NTF-ELCAC pointed to the case of Roger Fabillar, alias “Jong,” identified as commander of the Northern Negros Front and publicly acknowledged by the NPA itself as one of its slain members. Fabillar was among those who tested negative for gunpowder residue, underscoring what officials described as the scientific weakness of relying solely on paraffin tests to determine participation in combat.

Meanwhile, P/Col. Dennis Wenceslao, provincial director of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office, presented Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) findings showing that investigators recovered more than 20 firearms apart from explosives, ammunition, expended cartridges, communication equipment, backpacks, hammocks, medical supplies, and other war materiel from the encounter site — items authorities said were consistent with active guerrilla operations.

Government officials also highlighted that at least ten of the 19 fatalities were publicly identified and claimed by the NPA itself as members of the armed movement.

Among them were Fabillar and Josel Guimang, whom the NPA initially portrayed as an 18-year-old fighter but who authorities later confirmed was only 17 years old. Authorities said three child combatants were recovered from the encounter site, raising renewed concerns over the continued recruitment and use of children in armed conflict in violation of Philippine and international humanitarian laws.

The government also cited observations from forensic pathologist Raquel Fortun, who reportedly found no indications of close-range firing among the fatalities — findings officials said weaken allegations of execution or foul play and instead support the conclusion that the deaths resulted from a legitimate armed encounter.

Authorities likewise criticized what they described as shifting and contradictory narratives from the CPP-NPA, which initially acknowledged ten members killed, later raised the number to thirteen, and subsequently attempted to recast several fatalities as civilians.

“Changing numbers do not change facts,” Torres stressed.

The task force also questioned communist front organizations calling for “justice for all 19,” including individuals such as Fabillar who were publicly identified both by authorities and by the NPA itself as armed members of the movement.

“This blurs the distinction between identified combatants and alleged civilians while disregarding the forensic and physical evidence already presented,” Torres said, adding, “justice must rest on facts and truth, not on selective narratives.”

The NTF-ELCAC maintained that the totality of evidence — including forensic examinations, recovered firearms, crime scene findings, and admissions from the armed movement itself — all point to one conclusion: the Toboso incident was a legitimate armed engagement, not a massacre.

“Facts matter. Evidence matter. Forensics matter,” Torres emphasized.

Beyond the controversy, however, officials stressed that the deeper tragedy remains the continued loss of young lives in what they described as a failed armed struggle.

“We once again call on those who remain in the armed movement to abandon violence and choose peace before more lives are unnecessarily lost,” Torres said.