Fight Like Brandon Lee!
A Speaking Tour for a Just Peace in the Philippines | ICHRP-US
In August 2019, Brandon Lee, a Chinese-American environmental and indigenous rights activist, survived an assassination attempt by the 54th Infantry Battalion of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. He was shot and hit in four places rendering him a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the chest down with only partial sensation in his arms and hands. After community efforts to medically evacuate him from the Philippines, Brandon now lives in the US with his family and continues his advocacy for human rights in the Philippines.
This year, between April and September, the US chapter of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP-US) will be hosting a national speaking tour featuring Brandon Lee in his first travel since returning to the Bay Area following the attempt on his life.
Brandon is one among thousands of victims from the rural communities in the Philippines—farmers, peasants, and indigenous peoples—who have come forward with their stories of state terror, especially that of indiscriminate aerial bombings, hamletting, and crop-burning of their villages in the name of the Philippine government's counterinsurgency program aimed to annihilate the armed revolutionary movement of the Communist Party of the Philippines-National Democratic Front-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA-NDF). Despite the Philippine government signing off to comply with the previous agreements in the peace process with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) that stipulate respect for human rights and international humanitarian law, the Philippine government continues to deal bloody and gruesome blows to civilians and non-combatants alike seen most recently in the barrage of bombings all over the Philippines and in the massacre of the Bilar 5. Instead of addressing social and economic issues at the root of the armed conflict, the Philippine government uses the Armed Forces to clear out communities and protect foreign corporations who seek to profit from rich mineral resources in the country.
What few may realize is these ongoing war crimes are largely funded by the United States.
The Philippines is the largest recipient of US military assistance in the Asia Pacific region. Since 2015, the US has delivered more than $1.14 billion worth of planes, armored vehicles, small arms, and other military equipment and training to the Philippines. Beyond supplying the Philippine military with its tools of war, the US helps oversee and coordinate their actions and strategy through government bodies such as the Joint US Military Assistance Group (JUSMAG), while also maintaining the headquarters of the CIA in the region in Manila. It is no surprise why the US oversees such operations in the Philippines- US companies recently announced one billion dollars in investment in the country during a trade and investment mission.
As State fascism in the Philippines intensifies and the US enables the brutality and injustices against activists and civilians in the Philippines, there is a growing need to build international support for the Filipino people and demand an end to US support of these crimes.
Fight like Brandon Lee! Take inspiration from his commitment to continue to fight for and defend the rights of the Filipino people to a just and lasting peace! Build the broad solidarity movement for the Philippines!
