The student council of the University of the Philippines Diliman is demanding accountability after one of its own was killed in a military operation in Negros Occidental — and its chairperson is pushing back hard against how the armed forces have characterized her death.
Joaquin Buenaflor, chairperson of the UP Diliman University Student Council, said describing Alyssa Alano as a member of the New People’s Army is a desecration of her name and memory. Alano, a third-year Political Science student and USC councilor, was among 19 people killed on April 19 in Barangay Salamanca, Toboso, Negros Occidental.
Buenaflor said Alano had a long-established practice of visiting rural communities for integration, research, and community work — making her presence in Toboso consistent with what she had always done as a student organizer, not evidence of armed involvement.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines has maintained otherwise. Military officials said the April 19 operation was legitimate, and that Alano was not an innocent bystander but a rebel combatant who engaged government troops.
Alano was not the only non-combatant that advocacy groups and organizations are disputing the military’s account on. Among the 18 others killed were community journalist RJ Nichole Ledesma, an Altermidya regional coordinator for Negros Island, and two Filipino-Americans whose identities have since drawn additional scrutiny to the operation.
The Commission on Human Rights has opened its own investigation into the incident, citing inconsistencies in the military’s account of who died and under what circumstances.
