A southern California activist — who wasrecently killed by the Filipino militaryat a “terror” camp — was in the Philippines doing humanitarian work, according to those closest to him.
Friends and family of Lyle Prijoles said that he was part of a group that traveled back and forth to the country to advocate for underservedcommunities in the Philippines, and not a member of a far-left terrorist group killed in an armed military encounter, as the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) claimed.
Two Americans, Prijoles, a 40-year-old from Mira Mesa, and Kai Dana-Rene Sorem, 26, were among 19 people recentlykilled during a raid on a militantcommunist hideout in the Philippines.
Prijoles and Sorem were suspected of being “terror-groomed” by a leftist rebel cell known as the New People’s Army (NPA) in Toboso and were killed when troops from the Filipino military descended on their hideout April 19, according to the Filipino government.
Prijole’s wife, Marienne Cuison, disputes the narrative around her husband’s death and said that he was a “quiet, but very caring” man doing work to help people in that country in an interview withNBC 7from the Philippines.
“He was advocating for the Philippine Human Rights Act to be passed. He also would teach others what’s happening here.”
Cuison added, “The narrative that it was a conflict or an encounter, I think, is one-sided. So, I actually fully disagree.”
Prijoles previously attended San Francisco University, where avigil was recently held for him.
“He just loved people,” former SFU classmate Melissa Reyes said at the vigil. “I think he loved the Filipino people so much.”
She also told the outlet. “I know Lyle and that’s not what he was there for.”
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
