We are Decolonial Pin@ys, a Honolulu-based organization of Filipinas concerned about the protection of the Hawaiian islands, the Philippine islands, and all peoples under U.S. military occupation. We submit this statement to express our solidarity with kanaka maoli who demand an end to the military leases at Kahuku, Pohakuloa, Poamoho, and Makua so that a proper cleanup can begin.

The “training,” as the military calls it, is a disgrace. What use are live-fire explosions, military helicopters, or other instruments of mass death? Militarism means toxic contamination for generations, desecrating the land, and disrespecting the indigenous culture. Militarism only perpetuates poverty and misery here, in the Philippines, and all over the world.

We want to protect these islands. The military’s version of “protection” begins with the backhanded compliment that our islands are “strategically located” to advance “U.S. interests” in the “Indo-Pacific region.” We do not subscribe to the U.S. military version of security and protection, which is really an agenda of endless war and corporate extraction. We want the military out of these islands so we can build a green economy based on genuine security, survival and peace.

As Filipinas, we stand with the Hawaiian people because we, too, have suffered under U.S. colonial occupation. We know what it is to have no say over your lands, your economy, or your destiny as a people. As the late Haunani-Kay Trask wrote, “[To the U.S.], Hawai‘i, like a woman, is there for the taking.” We say, no more of this madness.

The Philippines has so much to teach about language diversity, religious diversity and resilience of indigenous cultures. But the U.S. military is not interested in democratic movements to protect all that is beautiful in the Philippines. The U.S. uses Philippine land for “joint military training exercises,” as many as 281 in 2020, not including RIMPAC “war games” that take place here every other year.

Just recently the U.S. approved $2 billion in military weapons sales to the Philippines, a grotesque sum given the ongoing human rights crisis that most affects indigenous people, farmers, journalists and anyone brave enough to prioritize land and people over corporate profits.

We know the military expansion in Hawaii will worsen the crisis in the Philippines. That is why we say: Stop stealing Hawaiian land and end the military leases. Stop the multibillion-dollar sale of weapons to the Philippines, and stop funding the killings. Stop U.S. “war games” on all our precious islands. Stop “red-tagging” everyone who wants a chance at a decent life for their families.

If we listen to indigenous land protectors, we can build a brilliant future, but that means putting common sense at the forefront. The fight for genuine freedom and democracy must mean that land, water, and traditional foodways are accessible, especially to indigenous people who have stewarded these lands for centuries.

We demand the taxes that we pay to go to government budget line items that genuinely promote “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”: education, housing, health care and transportation. Governments must honor the social contract by providing for the people and care for the ecosystem we depend on.

We can build a climate-resilient economy in Hawaii, but that means defunding the military-industrial complex, decommissioning military use of land in Hawaii, and cleaning it up so it can be returned to the community for nonviolent uses. We need the U.S. to replicate the cleanup in the Philippines, and in the rest of the U.S.-occupied Pacific, so the world can be protected, too.

Ellen-Rae Cachola is an ethnic studies instructor at the University of Hawaii-Manoa; Kim Compoc is an assistant professor of history at the UH-West Oahu; Darlene Rodrigues is an Oahu resident and masters of divinity student at Claremont School of Theology.