DePauw Stories

Maya Arcilla ’15 organizes in the Chicago Filipino community advocating for human rights, sovereignty and an end to the killings in the Philippines and is involved in the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and the movement for a Civilian Police Accountability Council. 

George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ronald “Ronnie Man” Johnson, Jayne Thompson, Kian delos Santos, Rekia Boyd, Fabel Pineda, Carl Arnaiz – only a few of the lives stolen at the hands of the U.S. and Philippine police. Each name represents a family and community in mourning and outrage.

In the Philippines, an estimated 27,000 people were murdered under President Duterte’s war on drugs in the past four years alone. In truth, Duterte is waging a war on the poor and against anyone who speaks up against his violent dictatorship. I am part of the Malaya Movement in Chicago – a Filipino organization fighting against tyranny in the Philippines – and we continue to resist state terror in the United States and abroad. We have marched alongside Chicago police torture survivors and community members who have lost loved ones due to police violence. Together, we rose up with millions in the streets after the killing of George Floyd, intensifying a political uprising denouncing state sponsored violence and demanding community control of the police.

Our struggles and liberation are bound together. From Minneapolis to Greencastle to the Philippines, let us continue to rise up for justice and fight for a world free of police impunity.