JUSTICE FOR THE NEW BATAAN 5 MASSACRE VICTIMS!
- Katribu Nasyunal
- Feb 24
- 2 min read
Four years have passed since the brutal killing of Chad Booc, Jurain Ngujo II, Elegyn Balonga, Robert Aragon, and Tirso Añar in New Bataan, Davao de Oro. They were volunteer teachers, a Lumad school development worker, and a driver who chose to serve Indigenous communities in advancing education, health, and collective empowerment.
They were civilians. They bore no arms. Yet they were arbitrarily branded as enemies of the State to justify their execution. Their killing constitutes a grave violation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), which explicitly protects civilians in situations of armed conflict. By falsely presenting their deaths as an armed encounter, State forces not only violated their right to life but also trampled on IHL protections meant to shield non-combatants from harm. Red-tagging became the pretext for their execution, another deadly pattern that continues to endanger Indigenous Peoples, human rights defenders, and community workers. To this day, the truth is distorted, accountability is evaded, and those who demand justice are harassed and vilified.
The New Bataan massacre took place under the regime of Rodrigo Duterte, whose bloody counterinsurgency campaign and so-called “war on drugs” drew widespread international condemnation and are now under investigation by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. The New Bataan 5 were among the many victims of a system that normalized extrajudicial killings and entrenched impunity.
But injustice did not end with the Duterte regime. Under Ferdinand Marcos Jr., extrajudicial killings and red-tagging persist. Activists, Indigenous leaders, development workers, and even humanitarian volunteers continue to be labeled as terrorists or rebels, exposing them to surveillance, harassment, arrest, and death. The machinery of counterinsurgency remains intact, and accountability for past and present violations remains elusive.
Four years on, justice continues to be denied. Militarization in Indigenous communities persists. Lumad schools remain closed or heavily targeted. Ancestral lands and territories are threatened by large-scale mining, dams, and plantations, while those who defend land and life face criminalization and violence. The climate of fear fostered by red-tagging continues to silence dissent and shrink civic space.
We remember and honor the New Bataan 5 as heroes who chose to serve the people. Like Teacher Chad and Teacher Jurain, they embodied a deep commitment to culturally rooted education and genuine solidarity with Indigenous Peoples despite relentless threats and vilification.
Their memory calls on us to persist. To defend Lumad schools. To uphold Indigenous Peoples’ rights to land and self-determination. To resist militarization and state terror. And to demand accountability from a government that continues to fail its people.
Justice for the New Bataan 5.
End red-tagging.
Stop the killings.
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