Two Americans die in Philippines clash with alleged communist insurgents
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Two Americans were killed in the Philippines during a military conflict that the government said was related to communist-linked groups.
Lyle Prijoles, 40, and Kai Dana-Rene Sorem, a 26-year-old transgender woman, were among 19 people killed in a clash between the Philippine Army and suspected members of the communist insurgency last month.
US-born Filipino Americans are currently at the center of a controversial confrontation; critics allege that the two are active fighters of the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the US State Department. However, human rights groups and the NPA reportedly maintain that the pair were civilian activists who posed no military threat.
By the way According to City Journal, the two Americans were first exposed to left-wing ideology through university-affiliated institutions; critics say it is paving the way for participation in groups that the Philippine government has long claimed have served as fronts for the CPP.
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Members of the local Filipino youth diaspora Anakbayan Alberta react during the protest on Sunday, May 15, 2022. (Young Filipino group reacts during protest)
The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict of the Philippines (NTF-ELCAC) said, “This brings to a count of two (2) US citizens (Lyle Prijoles and Kai Dana-Rene Sorem) killed in the same incident, a development that highlights the increasing involvement of individuals from outside the Philippines in local armed conflicts.” he said.
“The existence of the deaths of two Americans in a single encounter should prompt careful consideration of how participation in certain activities or networks may lead to unintended exposure to hazardous environments.”
According to NTF-ELCAC, on April 19, Philippine troops engaged in an armed conflict in Toboso, Negros Occidental. The agency has labeled the 19 people killed during an operation aimed at ending a decades-long communist insurgency in the Philippines as enemy combatants.
On the other hand, family members and human rights defenders reportedly identified Prijoles and Sorem as civil society activists. The NPA acknowledged that 10 of those killed were members of the armed revolutionary force, but claimed that the remaining victims, including several activists such as Prijoles and Sorem, posed no military threat, according to the San Francisco Standard. reported.
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Members of the League of Filipino Students (LFS) from various schools and universities clashed with police in Manila on November 13, 2025. (NurPhoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
In 2012, Prijoles, a Filipino American born and raised in San Diego, California, became involved with Anakbayan, meaning “Children of the Nation,” a leading left-wing youth and student organization founded in the Philippines in 1998. Anakbayan-USA operates on many major US university campuses and has faced scrutiny from critics for its opposition to US involvement in the Philippines.
His activism began around 2004, after attending San Francisco State University, when he joined the League of Filipino Students (LFS), a left-wing political alliance based on Marxist, Leninist and Maoist ideology, City Journal said.
After 2006, Prijoles reportedly made several trips to the Philippines organized by Ms. USA, another left-wing activist network. The Philippine government claimed that both organizations functioned as fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
According to City Journal, Prijoles may have harbored hostility towards the Armed Forces of the Philippines after her friend, the father of her godchild and the head of the U.S. chapter of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, survived an assassination attempt that left him paralyzed in 2019.
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Members of the League of Filipino Students (LFS) from various schools and universities march towards the U.S. Embassy in Manila on November 13, 2015, while Philippine Navy personnel were deployed to the area. (George Calvelo/NurPhoto)
Kai Dana Sorem, meanwhile, was a Filipino American from Seattle whose political development was initially shaped by a search for personal and cultural identity. based on to the advocacy group Malayan Movement.
His early political involvement reportedly included serving as a legislative page for the Washington State Democratic Party. Sorem later deepened her activism within left-wing Filipino diaspora organizations while attending Central Washington University in 2020. The Malaya Movement later established the South Seattle chapter of Anakbayan, he said.
Sorem is reportedly heading to the Philippines for a US-based promotional tour in 2025, and is moving to the country full-time to work as a promoter in 2026.
