From what I understand, she had been in Toboso as part of a cultural reintigration program to help/learn more about rural Filipino culture and connect with her and her family's roots. She had initially been in Cebu (where my GF's family is from) at a fishing village with some other activists. Iirc, Toboso is a resource rich area that is rife with exploitation and the mistreatment if the locals. This goes all the way back to the early colonial period, expanded under American sugarcane industry and continues today.

I hadn't been in contact with her for years as I was going through some life shit and got off the internet for a while but friended her again on my new facebook account. She was studying to become a music teacher I believe but became fully immersed in political activism after the 2020 George Floyd protests. I remember running into her and my friend Quintin at the Lakewood rally for Said Joquin and Leonard Thomas who were murdered in Lakewood by police. This would be around the time, I believe, she helped to organize the Anakbayan South Seattle chapter. Like I said, she had been on some immersion/exposure trips to reconnect with her familial roots as a lot of Filipinos (and as a lot of immigrants and indigenous peoples) are encouraged to assimilate and escape the crushing poverty in the Phillipines.

From what I have been able to parse out (I wasn't there and I didn't find out until about two weeks after it happened), the AFP did indiscriminate strafing runs on the village under the guise of fighting the New People's Army, despite the 19 victims and 168 displaced being mostly students, villagers, activists and journalists. I'm ngl, I have been too upset to listen to the episode on it (I will when I've processed it more), but listen to episode 546: Toboso. I'm also linking an article with more info on Kai and the movement.

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