Altermidya Network mourns the killing of our colleague RJ Nichole Ledesma, writer and editor of Paghimutad‑Negros and regional coordinator of Altermidya in Negros Island.
RJ was killed in a supposed military encounter in Barangay Salamanca, Toboso, Negros Occidental on April 19. But he was in the area doing community work and immersion reporting on the effects of renewable energy projects – including solar farm expansion and windmill projects – on vulnerable farmer communities.
Human Rights Advocates Negros (HRAN) said RJ was not in the initial clash site in Sitio Sinugmawan. According to the group, he was instead attacked in a separate peasant community in Sitio Plariding during an ensuing military pursuit operation.
RJ was a community journalist, editor, and poet. He served as editor‑in‑chief of Spectrum, the student publication of the University of St. La Salle–Bacolod, where he took a degree in Psychology. Since 2020, he led Paghimutad‑Negros, an alternative media outfit focused on human rights reporting and grassroots storytelling. He later joined Altermidya as regional coordinator for Negros Island.
RJ’s recent work documented the struggles of communities facing displacement due to large‑scale renewable energy projects, including solar farm expansion, windmill installations, and hydropower ventures. He also reported on reclamation projects in Bacolod, the expansion of a palm oil plantation in Candoni, and the conditions of sakadas and sugar farmworkers.
Paghimutad‑Negros, the community media outfit that RJ led, had long been subjected to red‑tagging and vilification. In October 2022, the Facebook page of the Philippine Army’s 303rd Brigade called one of Paghimutad’s human rights reports as “propaganda” and linked it to the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. The post circulated across police and military platforms, including the Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict in Western Visayas.
Paghimutad also reported on coordinated attacks against the peasant radio program “Kaling Kag Tugda,” as well as cases of journalists in Negros being profiled or followed by suspected state intelligence agents. It stressed that these efforts aimed to hide from the public the worsening human rights violations in their communities.
We give the highest honor to our colleague RJ, who until his last breath served marginalized communities by immersing and reporting on their stories. Together with his family and colleagues, we demand justice for RJ Ledesma.
