On April 1st, following US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s visit to the Philippines, the United States State Department approved the sale of $5.58 billion dollars of weapons to the Philippines.

The United States has justified pouring billions of dollars into expanding its military capacities in the Asia-Pacific, such as in the Philippines, as "defense" of its allies against China. But in truth, our tax dollars are being sent to countries like the Philippines to facilitate the blatant human rights violations committed by those in power, such as current president Marcos Jr., former president and current ICC arrestee Rodrigo Duterte.

A concrete example of the consequences of U.S. militarism in the Philippines is the brutal attack on environmental and human rights activist Brandon Lee, a U.S. citizen and San Francisco native. For almost a decade, Brandon lived in the Philippines, where he served the Indigenous Peoples of the Cordillera region. Brandon was a volunteer paralegal for the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance, among many other human rights organizations.

For his work, he was harassed, threatened, and shot by the military in 2019. He was the first U.S. citizen targeted by former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte and was shot four times by the 54th Infantry Battalion in an assassination attempt at his home. As a result, he is now permanently quadriplegic. Brandon has gone more than 5 years without seeing any justice or accountability for the attack on his life, and the bullets that were used in the attack were paid for by U.S. tax dollars.

The bloody track records of these administrations are made possible through the use of US-funded military weaponry and training – it is CLEAR that this arms sale will further amplify state-sponsored repression against the Filipino people!

Congress has until May 1st to approve of the sale, so please join us in demanding your house representatives to reject the $5.58 billion sale of military jets to the Philippines!