Filipino American Remains Missing After Aerial Bombings By The Philippine Military In Mindoro

Washington DC—Community organizations are raising concern for Chantal Anicoche, a Filipino American community leader from the United States who remains missing after aerial bombings and strafing were conducted by the Armed Forces of the Philippines on January 1 in Abra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro. In violation of International Humanitarian Law, the military deployed 4 attack helicopters that dropped no less than 12 aerial bombs followed by continuous aerial strafing for several hours, impacting the peasant and indigenous Mangyan communities living there. The AFP claims the attack was part of a so-called “encounter” with the New People’s Army, despite the NPA declaring a ceasefire lasting from December 25, 2025 through January 1, 2026.

According to initial fact-finding mission results from Karapatan Southern Tagalog, the AFP’s attacks killed 3 Mangyan Indigenous children, injured their mother, and forcibly displaced 188 families from the area. It also led to the death of at least 2 student researchers who had been integrating with the Mangyan community to more deeply understand their conditions. This is the latest in a series of rights violations on the island by the Philippine government, with 16,733 victims recorded on the island from January to November of 2025 alone according to Karapatan. President Donald Trump’s recent signing of the National Defense Authorization Act, including the Philippines Enhanced Resilience Act, authorizes $2.5 billion in U.S. security assistance towards Philippine defense institutions like the AFP, in spite of documented records of rights abuses.

Anicoche was present in Abra de Ilog at the time of the AFP’s attack. As someone deeply passionate about Indigenous and environmental issues, Anicoche went to the Philippines to learn directly from the Mangyan community about their issues and aspirations, especially in the face of economic hardship and the government’s militarization of the island. Community organizations are demanding the immediate surfacing of Anicoche, whose whereabouts and condition they suspect are being covered up by the Philippine military to avoid public condemnation.

Anicoche is a 25 year-old Filipina and recent B.S. Psychology graduate from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). She was a beloved member and leader with the Filipino student club there, the Filipino American Student Association (FASA). In FASA, Anicoche connected with other Filipinos about their shared identity, culture, and lived experiences. She also learned about the many issues the Filipino community faces, both in the U.S. and in the Philippines. Anicoche was especially drawn to environmental, farmers’, and Indigenous peoples’ issues in the Philippines. Learning about their experiences helped Anicoche understand the economic hardships her parents would talk about as reasons for leaving the Philippines in the first place.

Anicoche took on her first job after graduating as a public school substitute teacher. However, her care and passion for environmental and rural issues in the Philippines never waned. She continued her civic engagement through policy advocacy with the Philippine Human Rights Act campaign, supporting the rights of Indigenous peoples and farmers in the Philippines. And after seeing the back-to-back typhoons in the Philippines this year, Anicoche was inspired to pursue her passions and volunteer in the Philippines to learn from and help conduct relief work with rural communities directly impacted by environmental disasters and poverty.

“We demand the immediate surfacing of Chantal Anicoche,” stated Brandon Lee of ICHRP US. “We demand an immediate end to the AFP’s blockade preventing the truth from coming out and humanitarian assistance from coming in to the affected communities. We demand the military out of Mindoro and an end to de facto martial rule over the island. And we demand an end to U.S. funding and support for the Marcos administration’s crimes against the people.”

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