“Bawat sipag, bawat lakas, ay umaklas,” Tagalog for “Every effort, every force, rose up,” echoes through Jack Adams Hall during a performance of the song “Aklasan,” a fight song about contradictions in Filipino society.
Filipino students and community members gathered to learn from peers who integrated with communities in Cebu City after two typhoons in 2025, along with ongoing government repression, left locals in dire conditions. The project was led by the League of Filipino Students in collaboration with Bayan NorCal and Malaya Movement.
The reportback event served as a platform for students to share their experiences integrating with local communities. The intention of the trip was to connect local issues of the Filipino diaspora to the national issues of the Philippines, primarily addressing imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism.
JJ Bernas, the chair of the SFSU chapter of LFS and a speaker, finds motivation to continue working in Filipino community organizing after attending the trip to Cebu.
“It gave me the will to keep doing this. Our people are affected by these issues, I want to uplift these issues and exploitation of these people,” Bernas said. “We play an important role as Filipinos in the diaspora to uplift the campaigns and fights of people in the Philippines.”
One of the campaign experiences that the students integrated with was with the privatization of Carbon market, the oldest and largest public market in Cebu. According to Bernas, the market is at risk of being turned into a mall, so community leaders worked to rally over 6,000 vendors to save it.
In the Philippines, the Labor Export Policy encourages overseas employment of Filipino workers to mitigate domestic unemployment and bring remittances back home. This policy has become a cornerstone of the country’s development. According to Bernas, forced migration is entwined within Filipino culture despite the anti-immigration sentiment in the U.S.
“The Philippine consulate was colluding with ICE, they gave ICE information of Filipino migrants in SF,” Bernas said. “They’re an extension, an arm of the Filipino government. With LSF and Gabriela, we are part of a movement called Defend Migrants, which have helped successfully release nine Filipino migrants in detention centers.”
A destroyed building surrounded by debris in Zone Talong on Jan. 12, 2026. (Courtesy of DJ Chan)
Gabriela is a grassroots anti-imperialist organization with both a nationwide “Defend Migrants” campaign and local campaign “Justice for Filipino Caregivers.” Sam Alano is the current chair of Gabriela’s SFSU chapter, speaking at the event about the “Justice for Filipino Caregivers” campaign.
“It started off when two Filipino caregivers, Atele and Kuya Jay, were exploited while working at a care home in San Francisco,” Alano said. “Over 50% of Filipino workers are women and one of the main jobs they get are caregivers, and it’s a job that puts you in a vulnerable position.”
Alano spoke about how Gabriela recognizes the relationship between the U.S. and the Philippines as exploitative.
“In the Philippines, people are forced to migrate, and yet they’re also facing really poor conditions while they’re here,” Alano said. “It’s deeply connected because you see the way that U.S. imperialism also has its hands in destabilizing a lot of other countries currently. And so we really understand that U.S. imperialism is one of the core issues that the world faces, so our contribution toward fighting against it is fighting for the U.S. to get out of the Philippines.”
Felix Rosell, a member of LFS, spoke about his experience working with farmers in the Philippines and how the working conditions are laborious. He said that the economy in the countryside is “backwards,” with many farmers having lost their lands unable to pay their rent, now employed by wealthier farmers or landlords.
“You can’t even imagine how much they have to grow, how hard they have to work, to be able to make a couple thousand dollars in a year,” Rosell said. “There are rice liberation laws that allow cheap import of rice, which drags the price of local produced rice down so much that they can’t even sell a kilo of rice for 50 pesos.”
Organizers lead a chant of “mabuhi ang mga maguuma,” translating to “long live the peasant farmers,” with the audience responding “mabuhi!” in an echoing shout, meaning “long live.”
Vero G., who refused to cite their name in fear of retaliation, is a member of the SFSU chapter of Resist U.S.-Led War. They attended the reportback event and spoke on their takeaways from the presentation.
“I think hearing this and hearing about how they are local organizers here in the Bay Area and are going on these trips to connect these local campaigns to those in like your homeland, it’s really inspirational to see the way that our struggles really are interconnected,” Vero said.
Bernas said he is grateful for his time in the Philippines and his hopes for the SFSU Filipino community.
“I don’t think words can really describe what I experienced,” Bernas said. “My experience is not even a sliver of what the Filipino people have to go through everyday. I was extremely grateful to even be part of the trip like this. I hope other Filipinos are inspired by the event to learn about their heritage and what they can do to fight back.”
The event closed off with a deafening call and response chant: “Fight, do not be afraid” – “Makibaka, Huwag Matakot!”
Audience members interact with the League of Filipino Students, Gabriela and other local Filipino organizations tabling at the 2026 Philippines Report Back event on Thursday, March 5, 2026. (Eliza Arthur / Golden Gate Xpress)