US Military Violence against Women and Girls in Asia Pacific:
Balau, Okinawa, and Philippines
Producer: Margo Okazawa-Rey
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The US military presence is global and hegemonic. There are around 750 official military bases in at least 80 countries and territories, with hundreds oof thousands of military personnel. This makes the U.S. the country with the most overseas bases in the world. What is almost invisible especially to us in the US, is the destruction caused by the presence. Today’s program focuses on violence against women and transwomen committed by military personnel in and the impunity they are given in Balau, Okinawa, and the Philippines.
Guests
Ayano Ginoza is an associate professor at the University of the Ryukyus and has a background in American Studies. Her research explores Okinawan postcolonial conditions, indigeneity, and feminist transnational decolonial movements. She is a member of Okinawa Women against Military Violence.
Atty. Virginia Lacsa Suarez is the Chairperson of Pagkakaisa ng Kababaihan para sa Kalayaan (Kaisa Ka), a women organization geared towards women emancipation and liberation. She is the Chairperson of the Board of Philrights. A human rights lawyer for 28 years since 1996 and the legal consultant of Malaya Lolas and many other women, workers, farmers and fishers’ organization. She is also one of the convenors and spokesperson of Stop the War Coalition -Phils. and handled /won the case of Jennifer Laude against a US Marine, who was eventually found guilty, incarcerated and served his prison sentence in the. Philippines. She has also drafted the law and Implementing Rules Preventing Child Marriage or RA11596. She was awarded 2024 Inquirer’s Woman of Power.
Elilai T. Ngirmang is a Palauan legal scholar and human rights advocate, indigenous activist, and community organizer committed to reclaiming her ancestors’ embrace of diversity. She is the co-founder of Living All Inclusive In Belau (LAIIB), Palau’s first LGBTQI rights advocacy organization, a member of Pacific Feminists Defending the Living Planet, and an unapologetic anti-militarist.
Rooted in her Pacific heritage, Elilai is on a journey to relearn the wisdom of her ancestors and reclaim ancient practices of human rights, community, and interdependence with the natural world. Her advocacy spans disability rights, gender justice, food sovereignty, and decolonization. She is relaunching Otil a Beluad (“Anchor of Our Land”), an organization founded by her grandmother, MIRAIR Gabriela Ngirmang, to resist the militarization of Palau’s islands. Her grandmother taught her that at its root, leadership in Palauan culture is one of service and protection of the community—a lesson that guides Elilai’s work today.
