Migrante International condemns the bombardment and strafing operations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in Abra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro on January 1. Their recent attacks on civilians are war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law.
The AFP under Marcos Jr. bombed an indigenous community of Cabacao, Abra de Ilog on New Year’s Day under the guise of an “encounter” with the New People’s Army, despite the NPA’s observance of a holiday ceasefire. At the hands of the Philippine Army’s 203rd Infantry Brigade, three indigenous Mangyan-Iraya children and integrating student researcher Jerlyn Rose Doydora were massacred during their attacks. The terror brought by the AFP’s bombs and guns forced 188 indigenous families to flee their homes. State forces are covering up their crimes, denying the killings and blocking human rights workers from access to the affected.
Human rights workers in Mindoro are raising the alarm on Chantal Anicoche, a Filipino community leader from the United States who was in Abra de Ilog. Chantal was integrating with indigenous and peasant communities in the area when the AFP attacked. Contact was lost with Chantal, and her whereabouts are still unknown. Migrante demands the surfacing of Chantal, whose condition is likely being covered up by state forces now occupying the area.
Chantal is a 25 year-old Filipina from Maryland, where she served as a leader with the Filipino American Student Association. Migrants in the US look up to Chantal as a bright and passionate advocate for Filipinos at home and overseas. She campaigned for the causes of Filipino migrants and was an ardent supporter of the Philippine Human Rights Act. Through the PHRA campaign, she was moved by the conditions of the environment, indigenous peoples, and peasants in the Philippines. Chantal’s love for her country miles away inspired her to bring the cause of human rights to our homeland. She sacrificed her life overseas to help the downtrodden of Mindoro.
As a community activist in Abra de Ilog, Mindoro, Chantal sought to help with relief work for indigenous peoples suffering from the entry of mining corporations and destructive renewable energy projects on the island. The resistance of the people of Mindoro against development aggression drew the attention and wrath of the AFP. The military and its commander-in-chief Marcos Jr. are responsible not only for the military terror brought to Abra de Ilog but for the disappearance of Chantal.
We call on all our member organizations to campaign for the immediate surfacing of Chantal Anicoche. Her loved ones and community deserve to know if she is safe. We must raise a global call for an end to the military blockade in Abra de Ilog, Mindoro. The truth of the attacks in Abra de Ilog must come out, and humanitarian assistance must be provided to those affected by the attacks. Let us take to Philippine embassies and consulates around the world to demand justice for the fascist terror unleashed by the Marcos Jr. regime on Mindoro and the whole country. It is this very terror which tears us migrants apart from our homeland. Let us stop this terror from tearing us from Chantal.
Surface Chantal Anicoche!
Justice for the victims of the Cabacao Massacre!
Stop the bombings! AFP out of Abra de Ilog! Defend Mindoro!
