After the Armed Forces of the Philippines shot and killed 19 people in Toboso, Negros Occidental, Philippines, Christian clergy have been active in efforts to seek truth and justice for the slain, including one they knew intimately as a colleague in social justice.
Lyle Prijoles was a Filipino American activist who worked alongside many Christian clergy in the U.S. Bay Area. Prijoles was in the Philippines working with sugarcane workers when he was one of the 19 killed—the Armed Forces have claimed that all those slain on April 19 were members of the New People’s Army, a revolutionary, armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines. But that account has been disputed. The Communist Party of the Philippines has claimed only 10 were part of the NPA. Grassroots organizations and independent fact-finding missions have found the same; Prijoles was one of at least nine people reported to be civilians. In the months following those deaths, many of those who once organized with Prijoles have joined in the resounding call for justice.
In the months since, 11 members of Congress have called on the Philippine government to conduct an independent, impartial investigation into the killings. One of the groups that sought to perform such an investigation included several Christian clergy from the Philippines and the U.S.
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