Surface Chantal Anicoche! Defend Mindoro!

BAYAN USA and Migrante USA vehemently condemn the fascist terror unleashed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines on January 1 on the people of Barangay Cabacao, Abra de Ilog in Occidental Mindoro. In a clear violation of international humanitarian law, the military deployed 4 attack helicopters that dropped no less than 12 aerial bombs followed by continuous aerial strafing for several hours, terrorizing the peasant and indigenous Mangyan communities living there. The AFP claims the attack was part of a so-called “encounter” with the New People’s Army, despite the NPA declaring a ceasefire lasting from December 25, 2025 through January 1, 2026. It is clear that the Philippine government is just trying to hide its bloody crimes against the Filipino people.

The AFP’s attacks killed 3 Mangyan children, injured their mother, and forcibly displaced 188 families from the area. It also led to the death of at least 2 student researchers who had been integrating with the Mangyan community to more deeply understand their conditions. One of these youth was Jerlyn Rose Doydora, a leader with Kabataan Partylist, who died from an illness while trying to escape from the relentless bombing in the area. This is the latest in a series of rights violations on the island by the Philippine government, with 16,733 victims recorded on the island from January to November of 2025 alone.

We raise urgent concern for Chantal Anicoche, a Filipino community leader from the United States, who was also present in Abra de Ilog at the time of the AFP’s attack. Until now, Chantal remains missing. As someone deeply passionate about Indigenous and environmental issues, Chantal chose to go to the Philippines to learn directly from the Mangyan community their issues and aspirations, especially in the face of economic hardship and the government’s militarization of the island. We demand the immediate surfacing of Chantal, whose whereabouts and condition are most certainly being covered up by the Philippine military to avoid public condemnation.

Chantal is a 24 year-old Filipina and recent B.S. Psychology graduate from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). She was a beloved member and leader with the Filipino student club there, the Filipino American Student Association (FASA). In FASA, Chantal connected with other Filipinos about their shared identity, culture, and lived experiences. She also learned about the many issues the Filipino community faces, both in the U.S. and in the Philippines. Chantal was especially drawn to environmental, farmers’, and Indigenous peoples’ issues in the Philippines. Learning about their experiences helped Chantal understand the economic hardships her parents would talk about as reasons for leaving the Philippines in the first place.

Chantal took on her first job after graduating as a public school substitute teacher. However, her care and passion for environmental and rural issues in the Philippines never waned. She continued her civic engagement through policy advocacy with the Philippine Human Rights Act campaign, supporting the rights of Indigenous peoples and farmers in the Philippines. And after seeing the back-to-back typhoons in the Philippines this year, Chantal was inspired to pursue her passions and volunteer in the Philippines to learn from and help conduct relief work with rural communities directly impacted by environmental disasters and poverty.

The Philippine government—through its lapdogs in the military and National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC)—continue to block fact-finding teams from investigating the full extent of their crimes in Abra de Ilog. They are actively preventing Chantal’s loved ones and her entire Filipino community here in the U.S. from knowing whether she is safe and well.

We demand the immediate surfacing of Chantal Anicoche. We demand an immediate end to the AFP’s blockade preventing the truth from coming out and humanitarian assistance from coming in to the affected communities. We demand the military out of Mindoro and an end to de facto martial rule over the island. And we demand an end to U.S. funding and support for the Marcos regime’s crimes against the people.

Surface Chantal Anicoche!
Justice for Jerlyn Doydora!
Stop the bombings! Stop the killings! Stop the attacks!
End U.S.-backed violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the Philippines!
End de facto martial law in Mindoro!