Surface Jak and Eco Now!

Anakbayan USA condemns the disappearance of Axielle “Jak” Tiong, Anakbayan Pangasinan coordinator, and church worker Eco Dangla, on March 24 in Barangay Polo, San Carlos, Pangasinan. Reports from local witnesses state that they were assaulted and forced to enter an SUV.

Jak and Eco are fierce environmental defenders against the false “redevelopment” projects of the US-Marcos regime in Pangasinan and other parts of the Philippines that only serve to displace the Filipino masses and line pockets of corrupt officials and corporations. Despite having been red-tagged under the Duterte regime, they have continued to organize against the environmental degradation in the Philippines. They were disappeared in the midst of waging a campaign alongside the people of Pangasinan against the striking down of dozens of trees for a P500M Reflecting Pool and Interactive Fountain project in the name of “redevelopment” rather than serving the needs of the people of Pangasinan. The people of Pangasinan already suffer under the presence of economic zones that only benefit foreign corporations, including US based corporations like Sumitomo Rubber (formerly Goodyear-Dunlop) and Coca-Cola.

This follows after several human rights violations in Pangasinan and more attacks on environmental defenders in the Philippines like Jhed and Jonila who are fighting against Manila Bay reclamation alongside the masses of Central Luzon.

Despite these attacks and gross attempts at silencing the Filipino people, the youth will continue to fight until we see national democracy in the Philippines which will put an end to landlessness and the plunder of the Filipino people by imperialists and its local lapdogs.

Anakbayan USA joins the call to surface Jak and Eco!

#SurfaceJakAndEco

#DefendTheDefenders

#AbolishNTFELCAC