A Hayward Man Died in a Philippine Military Operation. Members of Congress Want Answers
Hayward resident Lyle Prijoles was 40 years old when he was killed in a military operation in the Philippines, along with 18 other people. Another American, 26-year-old Kai Sorem of Seattle, was also killed.
Three months later, in a letter delivered to Philippine Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez, U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Seattle, and 10 other members of Congress urged the Philippine government to ensure an “independent, impartial, and credible” inquiry into the killings.
What exactly happened in Toboso remains disputed. According to reporting by the Associated Press, the Philippine government’s National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict suspected those 19 people to be part of the New People’s Army — the armed wing of the Philippines’ communist insurgency.
Sen. Adam Schiff signed the July 21 letter, along with Sens. Jeff Merkley, Chris Van Hollen and eight U.S. House members. Families of both Prijoles and Sorem, along with human rights lawyers and union members, held an online press conference on Thursday to push the letter into public view.
Human rights organizations, including the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, BAYAN USA and Malaya Movement USA, described the operation as a “massacre executed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines who conducted indiscriminate firing.”
The Philippine Commission on Human Rights opened its own investigation on April 26, citing “inconsistencies in the identities of those dead” and reports that more than a hundred families were displaced.
“Our family has come to terms that we will never get the type of justice found with a jury and a judge or even jail time,” Prijoles’ sister, Lily, said in a statement. “The Philippine Army should not be shooting at civilians and hiding their mistakes.”
International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10 passed a resolution condemning the Army’s actions in Negros, where sugar farmers have long organized. The resolution passed during ILWU Local 6’s strike at the C&H sugar refinery in Crockett, California, which sources sugar from Negros.
Jayapal’s letter argued that inquiry from within the Philippine government cannot stand on its own, pointing to a lack of cooperation from security forces and their refusal to hand over key evidence.
“We really cannot expect a fair and independent and thorough investigation from these agencies,” said AK Guillen, an attorney with the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers in the Philippines, “because any investigation conducted by the Philippine government is spearheaded by the very same agencies leading the Philippine counterinsurgency campaign.”
Physical evidence has been difficult to obtain. Dr. Raquel Fortun, a forensic pathologist, conducted autopsies in April, at the request of victims’ relatives, presenting her initial findings on May 7. She said the bodies were decomposed, misidentified, left in water and missing clothing.
For Filipino Americans in the Bay Area, the case is not the first of its kind. Prijoles met
Brandon Lee, a San Francisco activist, in an Asian American studies class in 2004. Lee was shot outside his home in the Philippines in 2019 and left paralyzed. No one has been charged in the shooting.
According to U.S. Embassy data, the Philippines is the largest recipient of U.S. military assistance in the Indo-Pacific region. Since 2015, it has received more than $1.14 billion (the equivalent of 57 billion Philippine pesos) in equipment, training and defense funding.
Sorem’s sibling PJ said the families are “fighting to end state-sanctioned violence and US military funding of the AFP.”