Who is Chantal?
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.
What happened on January 1?
On January 1, the Armed Forces of the Philippines launched a major attack on Barangay Cabacao in Abra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro. In a clear violation of international humanitarian law, four attack helicopters dropped at least twelve bombs, followed by hours of aerial strafing, terrorizing the peasant and Indigenous Mangyan communities.
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.
What to Chantal?
Driven by her commitment to Indigenous and environmental issues, Chantal traveled to the Philippines to learn directly from the Mangyan community amid worsening economic hardship and militarization. She was present in Abra de Ilog during the AFP’s January 1 attack and has been missing ever since. There is an urgent demand for her immediate surfacing, as her whereabouts and condition are being blocked from public view.
What is the latest update?
quote from one of the most recent statements on her custody by AFP and push for her release
What are the current demands?
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