Release Chantal Anicoche Now! Defend Mindoro! Stop the Bombings!

Migrante Canada Statement

January 8, 2026

Migrante Canada joins the global call for the immediate and safe release of Chantal Anicoche. Recent developments and reports from human rights watch in the Philippines show that Chantal was seen alive and is in custody of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

The AFP video claims to show AFP officers “rescuing” Chantal. However, we reject this narrative given the AFP’s track record of smear campaigning against international solidarity activists, including the October 20, 2025 NTF-ELCAC statement which dangerously red-tagged the recent International Solidarity Mission (ISM). Given that no other videos “rescuing” local residents have been released, we can only assume that this video was posted in response to the global outcry over Chantal’s disappearance. The AFP’s handling of Chantal clearly falls in line with the Philippine government’s National Action Plan for Unity, Peace, and Development counterinsurgency tactics, which include withholding aid until victims “surrender” or participate in staged videos.

Chantal Anicoche went missing after the Armed Forces of the Philippines bombarded and strafed an Indigenous community in Cabacao, Abra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro, on New Years Day under the guise of an “encounter” with the New People’s Army. During these fascist attacks by the AFP, three indigenous Mangyan-Iraya children and two integrating student researchers were massacred. The bombings also forcibly displaced 188 Indigenous families.

Chantal is a beloved 24 year-old Filipina-American from Maryland, USA. She served as a leader at her university’s Filipino American Student Association (FASA) and recently graduated from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) with a B.S. Psychology degree. Through her involvement in the community and deep care for the Filipinos in the United States, she joined the Philippine Human Rights Act campaign and was drawn to the environment, Indigenous peoples, and peasants issues in the Philippines.

After the series of typhoons in the Philippines, Chantal was inspired to provide direct help to our kababayan in the Philippines. She was in Abra de Ilog in Mindoro helping with relief work for Indigenous peoples and communities directly impacted by environmental disasters and poverty. Chantal worked to stop the indiscriminate bombings in the Philippines and now has become a victim of this International Human Rights Law violation perpetrated by the Marcos regime.

Migrante Canada vehemently condemns the fascist US-Marcos initiated bombings in Mindoro through its lapdogs the AFP, particularly the 203rd Infantry Brigade. Chantal’s disappearance during the AFP’s attacks reflect the situation of intense militarization and fascist attacks against the people of Mindoro. Migrante Canada demands Chantal’s immediate and safe release from the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Migrante Canada calls on fellow Filipinos in Canada and beyond, as well as on our allies and friends, to join the global call for the immediate and safe release of Chantal Anicoche now. We call to ensure her safety from any form of torture, harassment, interrogation, threat, or intimidation by the AFP. We demand the Marcos Jr. administration, from Philippine consulates, embassies, and to the Malacañang, to release and return Chantal to her loved ones and community.

Migrante Canada also calls for justice for the victims of the massacre in Abra de Ilog, an end to the military blockade and bombings in Mindoro, and an end to the de facto martial rule over the island.

STOP THE BOMBINGS! DEFEND MINDORO! RELEASE CHANTAL NOW! ##