Justice for Lyle Prijoles! Justice for the victims of the Toboso massacre! Defend Negros!

BAYAN USA vehemently condemns the fascist violence of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for its indiscriminate firing and strafing in Barangay Salamanca, Toboso, Negros Occidental form April 19 to 20, 2026. In a clear violation of human rights and international humanitarian law, the AFP killed 19 people, displaced 653 residents (168 families), and caused an additional 200 residents living between Escalante City & Toboso to flee.

We grieve and demand justice for those whose names have already reverberated in mass protests throughout the country: RJ Ledesma, Alyssa Alano, Maureen Santuyo, and Errol Wendel.

BAYAN USA has learned that 1 other among the 19 who were mercilessly killed is Filipino-American Lyle Prijoles. BAYAN USA and Filipinos across the United States extend our deepest sympathies to the family and loved ones of Lyle, and join them in righteous fury at his unjust murder. Just like RJ, Alyssa, Maureen, and Errol, Lyle was immersing with communities in Negros at the time to learn first-hand their daily hardships as farmers and their struggle for land and justice.

Lyle was a 40 year-old human rights advocate from California. He is a well-loved community member who for decades was involved with the Filipino community—whether through his parents’ Filipino restaurant, student clubs in college, arts and cultural organizations, and human rights advocacy groups. Having studied Journalism and Asian-American Studies, Lyle strove to take his education beyond the classroom, and use it to listen to and uplift the stories of marginalized communities who had the courage to stand for their rights.

But Lyle knew that the stories of the Filipino community reached much further than California, and even beyond the United States. After graduating, his advocacy work eventually brought him back home to the Philippines on several occasions to learn directly from communities facing poverty, hunger, natural disasters, and oppression. This spring, Lyle chose to visit the Philippines once more to live with communities in Negros and learn first-hand their daily hardships and experiences under state repression.

Lyle and the others mercilessly slain by the AFP are not the only victims of state violence on the island. Negros has a long history of bloody state repression, dating as far back to the severe exploitation of sugar cane workers since the 1900s and even prior. In 2018, former President Rodrigo Duterte passed Memorandum Order 32, designating Negros under a “state of lawless violence” and facilitated the increased deployment of AFP forces. On March 7, 2021, 9 peasants from the National Federation of Sugar Workers were massacred, and dozens were illegally arrested by state forces. In fact, from 2022 to 2025, 52 out of the 135 victims of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines were from Negros. The extrajudicial killings of April now add to that number.

We must demand justice for Lyle, the people of Negros, and all people who have fallen victim to state violence. Lyle’s care for others, for his community, and for human rights in the Philippines motivated him to go back home to the Philippines. It is a decision that has our highest respect, and one that more Filipinos overseas should not be afraid to make. No Filipino abroad who wants to return home to our motherland and stand with the most marginalized in society should have to fear government attack.

We demand an immediate and independent investigation into the AFP’s April 19th attack, in what can only be called a massacre. We also demand that families, as well as their lawyers and human rights advocates, be given full access to their loved ones’ remains without any threat, interrogation, harm, or intimidation. Lastly, we demand an end to U.S. funding and support for the brutal, fascist Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration.

Justice for Lyle Prijoles!
Justice for all the victims of the Toboso massacre!
Stop the killings! Stop the attacks!
End U.S.-backed violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the Philippines!
Defend Negros!