Photo Credit: Anakbayan UW

Wednesday, April 20th, was a big day for Anakbayan UW, a student group fighting for the liberation of the Filipino people. In an effort to pass the Philippine Human Rights Act (PHRA), student organizers went to Adam Smith in the Hub and asked him for support. After demonstrating a clear apathy towards community members. His response made it clear that neoliberal politicians like Smith can not be trusted to respect students, human rights, and the working class.

Content Warning: Discusses Human Rights Violations and Violence 

For Filipinos, the name Ferdinand Marcos evokes bad memories. Marcos was the dictator of the Philippines for over 20 years and was responsible for large-scale incarceration and murder under martial law, including the assassination of Silme Domingo, a UW student organizer.

This being said, it is incredibly disturbing that Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the ex-dictator’s son, is rising to power as the leading candidate in the Philippine presidential election.

The vice-presidential candidate, Sara Duterte, is the daughter of the current president Rodrigo Duterte, who has led a brutal “war on drugs” that has targeted political dissent and killed thousands. Duterte is responsible for the death of the New Bataan Five - young organizers just out of college. 

The current right-wing Duterte regime has made it increasingly difficult to organize an opposition to the Marcos-Duterte campaign. Organizers are being targeted, incarcerated, and killed.

The U.S. continues to support Duterte's crackdown on political opposition, giving 550 Million Dollars to the Philippine police and military in recent years.

Filipino Americans are fighting adamantly for the Philippine Human Rights Act (PHRA) to pass in the U.S. congress, which would suspend military aid to the archipelago until the human rights violations stop. 

This would give organizers in the Philippines “room to continue their advocacy for social and economic issues they are fighting for- for land, higher wages, education, health, etc. with less risk of being harassed or killed,” an Anakbayan UW organizer said Wednesday.

Enter, Adam Smith, a neoliberal U.S. congressman from Bellevue. As the chair of the congressional Armed Services Committee, he has personally approved U.S. taxpayer support for Duterte’s human rights violations.

On Wednesday, Smith was invited to host a forum at the HUB with the Jackson School of International Studies. In the first minutes of his speech, he argued for increased military spending, war, and “deterrence.” 

At that moment, a dozen Filipino students and solidarity allies cut him off and addressed Congressman Smith’s involvement in Duterte’s human rights violations. One student said: “Brandon Lee is an American Citizen who was shot in 2019 by agents of the Philippine State in front of his young daughter. He is paralyzed from the waist down. If the guns and bullets that were used were paid for by military aid that was authorized by your committee, then his blood is on your hands. This is just one of thousands of stories. Representative Adam Smith, you must do everything in your power to end these human rights violations.”

Another student said: “Adam Smith, you as the chair of the arm’s services committee have approved 550 million dollars since 2016 to the Philippines, not including arms sales, during a pandemic. As concerned constituents, we demand you endorse the Philippines Human Rights Act (PHRA) and participate in a town hall regarding the PHRA.”