HUSTISYA PARA KAY KAI SOREM!
JUSTICE FOR KAI SOREM
We denounce and decry the massacre of our beloved youth activist, Kai Sorem, and the Negros 19.
Kai was a 26-year-old woman raised in Steilacoom, WA. Kai's family shaped her to be loving, kind, patient, and attentive to others. With a shining smile, she was incredibly gentle and kind, driven by her great love for the masses. She was curious to learn about others and help in any way she could.
In 2020 while studying to be a music instructor at Central Washington University, the COVID pandemic hit. She witnessed state violence and repression through the killing of George Floyd and saw parallels in Duterte’s war on drugs and the poor, and how the Anti-Terror Law was also used to criminalize ordinary people wanting to make change. Kai was inspired to be part of the change, especially in the Filipino community. She saw a future for her people in the National Democratic movement and helped to launch Anakbayan South Seattle (ABSS), serving as the chapter’s founding Solidarity Officer.
As a musician, Kai used her formal education with her love for her community and the Philippines. She started a band and learned to perform inspiring music that depict the people’s struggles and aspirations for a better future for the homeland.
Kai immersed herself deeply in the lives of migrant Filipino families, beloved by many in the community. Kai was an advisor to a high school Filipino club for many years, getting students excited to learn about their peoples history through art and culturally relevant education. As she learned about the struggles of migrant families in the neighborhood, she brought families together to address the needs in the community. Alongside the masses, she led efforts to galvanize workers to fight for their rights. She was and continues to be an inspiration to them.
To strengthen her understanding of the motherland, Kai traveled to the Philippines where she saw the plight of peasants and fisherfolk in rural Cebu. As she lived among the toiling masses and experienced the fascist militarism and counter-insurgency tactics of Marcos Jr’s “National Action Plan for Unity Peace and Development (NAP-UPD)”, she knew that she wanted to do more to serve the people. She aspired to return one day to be with the most oppressed and exploited.
In 2026, she returned to the Philippines to deepen her knowledge of her country and culture through learning the language and serving peasant farming communities. She is one of many Filipino youths who seek to understand their roots and the society that forces many Filipinos to migrate, and choose to contribute to change.
On April 19 and 20, 2026, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) conducted prolonged and indiscriminate strafing across several villages in Toboso, Negros Occidental. The attack displaced 653 residents (168 families) and caused an additional 200 residents living between Escalante City and Toboso to flee.
While seeking to learn from and serve the communities there, Kai was among the 19 individuals brutally massacred by the AFP. Others murdered were farmers, student leaders, community journalists, and researchers, including: Lyle Prijoles, another beloved Filipino American activist; RJ Ledesma, a youth journalist and writer; Alyssa Alano, a student leader at UP Diliman; and Errol Wendel and Maureen Santuyo, both peasant advocates. They were all murdered simply for immersing with communities to learn from their struggles against land grabbing, development aggressions, and militarism.
The Philippine military is trying its best to cover up the fact that they murdered innocent civilians. This is not the first instance of state violence in Negros. The island has a long history of bloody state repression, dating as far back to the severe exploitation of sugar cane workers since the 1900's and even prior. In 2018, former President Rodrigo Duterte passed Memorandum Order 32, designating Negros under a “state of lawless violence” and increased deployment of AFP forces. What we should question instead is the government's policy of Memorandum 32 which gave excuse for intense militarization of the countryside. This systematically gave license to extrajudicial killings (EJKs), torture, and forced disappearances by the AFP and PNP. As a result, 12% of the country's political prisoners are from Negros. This is a futile attempt of the government to annihilate the National Democratic mass movement. More and more, the people of Negros are seeing the true solution to their problems: a National Democratic revolution that espouses land for the landless and genuine national industrialization for the country.
We can expect the slandering and terror-tagging of Kai and the Negros 19’s families by the AFP and the U.S. counter-insurgency agents as an attempt to justify the brutal killings of the people of Negros. But the masses will remember Kai and the fallen heroes of Negros as people who fought for the people’s basic rights to land and life.
We demand justice for Kai and Lyle, for RJ and Alyssa, for Errol and Maureen, and for the people of Negros as victims of state violence.
We demand an immediate and independent investigation into the April 19 and 20 attacks, which can only be called a massacre.
We demand the families, lawyers, and human rights advocates be given full access to their loved ones' remains without harassment, interrogation, harm or intimidation.
Let us continue to uplift the struggles of the Negrosanon people against all forms of oppression and repression.
Let us carry forward Kai’s legacy through deep immersion with the oppressed and steadfast service to the people.
HUSTISYA PARA KAY KAI!
JUSTICE FOR THE NEGROS 19!
UMUWI AT PAGLINGKURAN ANG SAMBAYANAN!
