Social Justice Group Protests Boeing for Aiding “Terrorism”

The Boeing Company is known to be the world’s largest aerospace company. They are famous for their aid in plane production, but did you know they also build drones to aid the war on “terrorism” in the Philippines? Anakbayan is a youth and student organization working to educate, organize and mobilize the community to address important issues that affect Filipinos in the U.S. and the Philippines.

They have been protesting at Boeing for aiding President Duterte’s military with the production of the drones. The group’s mission is to “aim to unite Filipino youth of all backgrounds in order to achieve genuine freedom and democracy in the Philippines.”

President Duterte is thought of as a dictator because his military and men are seen as untouchable in the eyes of the public. The people of the Philippines know that the government is corrupt. Remember when Ronald Reagan began the War on Drugs in 1981? His expansion and focus on criminal punishment over treatment led to a massive increase in incarcerations for nonviolent drug offenses, from 50,000 in 1980 to 400,000 in 1997.

The U.S. Congress passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. This allocated roughly $1.7 billion to the War on Drugs and created a series of “mandatory minimum” prison sentences for various drug offenses. An important feature of mandatory minimums was the huge gap between the amounts of crack and powder cocaine that resulted in the same minimum sentence: possession of five grams of crack led to an automatic five-year sentence while it took possession of 500 grams of powder cocaine to trigger that sentence. Mandatory minimums led to an unequal increase of incarceration rates for nonviolent black drug offenders because approximately 80% of crack users were African American. The War on Drugs was considered a racist institution.

Similarly to how the War on Drugs in America was used to disenfranchise African Americans, Duterte uses his “War on Drugs” as an excuse to arrest and kill those who defy him. According to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), 4,948 suspected drug users and dealers died during police operations from July 1, 2016 to September 30, 2018. According to the Philippine National Police (PNP), 22,983 such deaths since the “war on drugs” began are classified as “homicides under investigation.”The exact number of fatalities is difficult to ascertain because the government has failed to disclose official documents about the “drug war.” It has issued contradictory statistics and, in the case of these “homicides under investigation,” stopped releasing the figures altogether.

Citizens fear if they protest against him, the military and police will assassinate the person and lie saying they were a drug lord to get away with it. The police force is known to plant drugs on the people that were targeted so they have an excuse to put them in jail, or worse, kill them.

Jada Mendoza, a Public Affairs major at Seattle University who immigrated from the Philippines to America as a child, has been involved with the organization since March 2018 last year after attending an event they hosted called “Malaya Stop the Killings Open Mike”.

She said she joined Anakbayan, “Because I care about the Philippines and since I grew up there I never saw the human rights violations that were there.” She said it was only after she left the Philippines that she was able to see an outside perspective of her middle-class bubble and see how those most affected like the working class and the urban poor were being oppressed by their government. She says, “I never experienced the oppression they did.” She describes joining the organization as an opportunity for her to reclaim her time.

She talked about how the US needs to stop giving the Philippines money and supplies like the drones for their military because it is being used to harm their own people. They used the drones to spy on their own people and are violating their own human rights under the false name of terrorism. Although activism is draining, she still stays positive and continues her work for the masses. Her collective in the group Anakbayan keeps her going.

To anyone who wants to help get involved with the organization, she recommends to “stay informed and reach out to community members who do grassroot works because those organizations do the work because they see a need for it rather than for profits.” Social Media and going to the events posted on instagram and facebook is the best way to reach out to the organization.

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I made this back in 2019 for a school article.