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Philstar.com
January 9, 2026 | 10:34am
MANILA, Philippines — Human rights organizations are demanding the immediate release of a 24-year-old Filipino-American community leader who surfaced in military custody days after an aerial bombing in Occidental Mindoro reportedly killed at least five people, including three indigenous children.
Chantal Anicoche went missing during a January 1 military assault that saw four attack helicopters drop at least 12 bombs and fire rockets at peasant and Mangyan communities in Barangay Cabacao, Abra de Ilog, according to the group Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle.
Reports on Thursday, January 8, showed a video clip of Anicoche confirming her identity, after 203rd Infantry Brigade Commander BGen. Melencio Ragudo said soldiers found her around 2 p.m.
The hours-long bombardment killed three Mangyan-Iraya children and injured their mother, while student researcher Jerlyn Rose Doydora, a member of Kabataan Partylist's General Secretariat, died after falling ill during forced evacuation, human rights group Karapatan Southern Tagalog said.
The attack displaced 188 families, according to lawyer Edre Olalia, president of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers.
"The AFP must answer for Chantal's disappearance. Her safety is their responsibility, and every day she remains missing is a day of grave injustice," said Saara Rapisora, spokesperson for the humanitarian team of Karapatan Southern Tagalog.
Anicoche had traveled to Mindoro to learn from indigenous communities facing environmental destruction and militarization, Olalia said. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) claimed the operation targeted New People's Army rebels, though FFPS said the guerrillas were observing a holiday ceasefire at the time.
Lawyers and activists say the use of aerial firepower in civilian areas violates international humanitarian law. Olalia warned that based on documented cases, victims of state abduction are "regularly subjected to severe physical and psychological torture." He demanded Anicoche not face "any form of torture, interrogation, threat, harassment, and intimidation."
Anicoche's rights "must be upheld at all times, and she should be released immediately," said the group International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP).
"We demand that Chantal must not be subject to any form of torture, interrogation, threat, harassment, and intimidation from the hands of any unit of the AFP," the ICHRP said in a statement early Friday, January 9.
The military has blocked human rights organizations and fact-finding missions from entering Cabacao to investigate, according to Karapatan Southern Tagalog. The group said soldiers used a local ordinance restricting outsiders to deny humanitarian teams access to evacuation centers.
"Denying the humanitarian team access is not about security, it is about hiding their crimes. What are they trying to hide from the public?" Rapisora said.
Karapatan has called on the Commission on Human Rights to conduct an independent investigation and urged United Nations human rights mechanisms to monitor the situation and hold the Philippine government accountable for alleged violations of international humanitarian law.
The group Malaya Movement said in a statement calling to surface Anicoche that she is a student leader based in Baltimore, United States and a "steadfast advocate for the Philippines." Anicoche was staying in a community in Occidental Mindoro as a researcher when the AFP carried out its aerial bombing campaign in the area.
"Chantal is an example of someone who understands that change takes risks, and she puts that wholeheartedly into practice. She was one of the advocates behind the push to pass the Philippine Human Rights Act to ensure the rights of Indigenous peoples, farmers, and all peoples are respected," the group said.
