Defend Peoples’ Struggles! Free Christina Pasion and Binay Serrano!
ILPS-US condemns the US-backed Armed Forces of the Philippines' (AFP) raid and arbitrary arrest of two people seeking medical treatment in Laguna, Philippines: community organizer Christina Pasion from Baltimore, and Mangyan indigenous organizer Binay Serrano. Every moment Christina and Binay are detained leaves them at the will of the Philippine state forces who have a bloody track record of torture and psychological warfare against political prisoners.
This unjust raid and arrest is yet another case of the US-Marcos regime's escalating fascism deployed against the Filipino people, including Filipino activists overseas. The military and police enforces the rule of the country's biggest sellouts and exploiters, including Marcos himself, taking marching orders from Trump and Secretary of State Rubio to intensify their onslaught against people fighting for their livelihood. The US maintains a stranglehold over the Philippines' government, military, and economy, naming the Philippines as part of their first island chain against China, and a site to launch its Pax Silica initiative, which aims to rob the Filipino people's land, water, and power to feed US weapons and AI technology. When indigenous communities in the Philippines organize to stop mining development and ecotourism profiteering from ancestral lands, they are met with US-made bombs deployed by the fascist Philippine government beholden to foreign corporations. Binay is Mangyan-Buhid, an indigenous community forcibly displaced due to militarization. She is now being terror-tagged and held in military detention to suppress the peoples struggle for land and peace.
The primary target of Trump's fascist attacks and increased international coordination of the US' "counter-terror" strategy, from military strikes on Venezuela to all-out war on Iran, are peoples' movements fighting for an end to exploitation and US imperialist domination. Even Philippine government officials like Ambassador Romualdez have released opinion pieces directly parroting Rubio's talking points on the global rise of "left wing terrorism," hungry for billions more in military aid to commit war crimes.
They aim to use Christina and Binay as "examples" to strike fear in the hearts of a those who dare to struggle for a better world. In a society flooded with corruption and violence, the people stand with these two organizers, continuing the fight not only for their freedom but also the freedom of the most oppressed in Philippine society today - the rural and urban poor.
Organized community pressure has been the most effective at surfacing and releasing people from baseless detention in the Philippines. International solidarity is urgently needed to help secure the immediate and safe release of Christina and Binay. We demand an end to US-backed war crimes and fascist repression in the Philippines and the sale of billions in weapons used to kill and detain community members. Attacks on the Filipino people and land will not end until the US is out of the Philippines. The Filipino people will ultimately liberate themselves from US imperialism and their own fascist government, with peoples' movements around the world standing in solidarity with their fight!
Immediate Release of Christina and Binay!
End US-Backed War Crimes in the Philippines! Defend People's Struggles!
Shut the Pax Down!
US Out of the Philippines!