The Philippines is among the world’s most mineral-rich countries. Since the passage of a 1995 law allowing 100% foreign ownership of land, the Philippine government has prioritized mining and development companies over its people and the environment. The Cordillera, with its undulating mountains, terraced rice fields and valley-carving rivers, is full of minerals to be mined and waterways to be harnessed. And as deep-pocketed corporations desiccate rivers and destroy peasant livelihoods in a nationwide plunder supported by the state, it’s also a place where human rights are abused with impunity.

In Ifugao, that had already meant the killing of two indigenous IPM leaders in four years: William Bugatti in 2014 and Ricardo Mayumi in 2018. Both had been involved in human rights and environmental organizing, including, for Mayumi, fighting a hydropower project that would dam the rivers, displace communities and impede locals’ ability to grow rice. Both had received death threats, and in both cases, their assailants were never found. But Philippine activists recognized familiar signs that suggest the military was involved.

In 2019, members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines attempted to assassinate me in response to my efforts to defend Indigenous Philippine lands from environmental and governmental degradation. Bullet fragments from the attack are still lodged in my body, and I am paralyzed from the chest down.

But it was not only those specific soldiers who were responsible for my near-murder. It wasn’t even only the Philippine government. The global neoliberal economic model that prioritizes endless profiteering and exploitation over peace, equality, and environmental stewardship helped load the gun.

Now, four years later, and back in my hometown of San Francisco, I am surrounded by the leading symbols of that global order—because my city has been chosen as the site of this year’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. For the first time in 12 years, the United States is hosting the APEC Heads of State meeting, a gathering of national leaders from 21 member economies—including Joe Biden, Xi Jinping, and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., all of whom have arrived in San Francisco—an

It all begins with an idea.