Both in the Philippines and abroad, youth and students have increasingly launched protests against various issues plaguing Filipino society. In August, youth and students launched campus protests across the archipelago to mark the opening of the new semester. The actions revived and carried forward the 2025 walkout movement against widespread corruption, primarily in flood control projects. In the US, youth were at the forefront of a national day of protest led by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan)-USA to call for the release of Filipino-American activist Christine Pasion and Mangyan-Buhid organizer Binay Serrano.

The student protests in the Philippines continued last year’s movement, denouncing state corruption, abuses and fascism, while highlighting specific student demands such as increased education funding and the upholding of academic freedom and democratic rights on campus. The protests also took up people’s issues, including opposition to the Pax Silica hub and the subservience of the Marcos regime to US imperialism.

On August 17, students staged a coordinated protest in the University of the Philippines (UP) System campuses. Hundreds of students attended the protests held at UP Los Baños, UP Manila, UP Diliman, UP Visayas, UP Cebu and UP Mindanao, as well as at UP Baguio and UP Tacloban on other dates. In Manila, protests were also held at the Philippine Normal University, Far Eastern University and the Polytechnis University of the Philippines (PUP), the latter being the largest of the protests with 3000 students in attendance.

In Cebu, the youth were met by attempts of police and state forces to suppress their protest. The coordinated actions at the University of San Carlos, Cebu Normal University and Cebu Technological University stood in opposition to the tuition hike.

On the National Youth Day, the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) called on students to continue standing up and fighting for their rights, saying, “At our every step, we the youth will not relent because our stand is anchored on the people. We must carry this pledge beyond our schools, toward the communities and into every corner of our country until we achieve our long aspired and deserved change.”

To stand up and fight for their rights is actually what Filipino-American youth did as they protested at Philippine consulates and embassy in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington DC. The protest marked the 30th day of Pasion’s detention, who remains in the custody of the Bureau of Immigration and the Philippine National Police (PNP) in a move to criminalize both her and Mangyan-Buhid organizer Binay Serrano on fabricated charges.

Bayan-USA highlighted the plight of Filipino migrants abroad and its roots in the conditions in the Philippines, from which the diaspora must learn, “Pasion is an example of what it means to go to the Philippines, see the conditions firsthand and be in service to the people who are active participants in their own liberation… We must not let Marcos’ repression deter Filipinos in diaspora from heeding the call to serve the Filipino people and continuing the struggle for genuine sovereignty and national democracy.”