MANILA — Environmentalists, along with farmers, and workers join LGBTQIA+ groups at Liwasang Bonifacio, reaffirming the progressive and militant spirit of pride. 

Today, June 26, marks the second Stonewall celebration in the Philippines, which pays tribute to the 1969 Stonewall Riots that sparked the modern gay rights movement around the globe. 

For progressives, pride is inseparable from the fight for climate justice, higher wages, to end militarization. For them, celebrating pride is to struggle for genuine and systemic solutions. 

Toffee Galolo, a student leader from UP Diliman, condemned the Aboitiz Renewables Inc. sponsorship of the upcoming Love Laban Pride march. Galolo cited the initial findings from the recent Environmental Investigative Mission, where Aboitiz’s solar renewable energy farms are disrupting and poisoning the local ecosystem while violating the right of Indigenous Peoples to free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC). 

Environmental defenders and LGBTQIA+ rights activists also condemned the US-led Pax Silica Initiative, rejecting claims that it will help national development and secure more jobs for Filipinos. 

The Pax Silica treaty was signed by the Philippine Government last April 16 to streamline and secure supply chains for technologies like Artificial Intelligence and possibly military equipment. Groups fear that this will only serve the U.S. military industrial complex. 

Read: US, Malacañang urged: ‘Disclose the true nature of Pax Silica’

Galolo asserted that the quest for genuine sexual liberation requires the fall of imperialist powers. “We can see that the Philippines still has strong ties to the US, and we often submit ourselves to unfair treaties…pride, in essence, is to be anti-imperialist,” he explained in Filipino.  

Despite heavy downpour during the program, the LGBTQIA+ rights activists and allies persisted, calling to end the systemic oppression marginalized communities have long been bearing. (CAM, AMU, RVO)

All photos are by Viggo Sarmago