Makibaka, Magkaisa: Fil-Am LAKAS Alliance Leads No Kings Saturday at Historic Filipinotown
Makibaka, Magkaisa: Fil-Am LAKAS Alliance Leads No Kings Saturday at Historic Filipinotown
Music, poetry, art, and the inherited lakas of People Power converge at Unidad Park as Filipino Americans join the largest single-day protest in U.S. history — because this community knows exactly what a king looks like.
Makibaka, Magkaisa. Fight. Unite. The two words have echoed through every Filipino resistance movement for over a century — from the Katipunan's revolution against Spain, through the labor camps of Delano, to the yellow-ribbon barricades on EDSA. Today, Saturday, March 28, 2026, they ring out again beneath the Gintong Kasaysayan, Gintong Pamana mural at Unidad Park in Historic Filipinotown, as the Filipino American LAKAS Alliance, Indivisible–HiFi/Echo Park, Sunday Jump, and the Pilipino Workers Center lead the Fil-Am community into the streets for No Kings Day 3 — the largest single-day political mobilization in United States history.
Over 3,200 events in all 50 states. An estimated 9 million Americans. And in one pocket of Los Angeles where the street signs read in Tagalog, a community of immigrants and their children is packing warm pandesal into brown paper bags, hanging protest signs next to the artwork of Dar San Agustin, and tuning instruments for an afternoon of jazz, poetry, and collective defiance. This is not just a rally. It is a reunion of the Filipino spirit — a daylong community gathering that fuses art, music, and mutual aid with the urgent business of democracy. For the diaspora, the calculus is simple: we have seen what kings do. We have toppled one before. And the inherited lakas of People Power did not stop at the Pacific.
The Historic Filipinotown rally is hosted by four organizations: Indivisible–Historic Filipinotown/Echo Park (IHFEP), the Filipino American LAKAS Alliance, Sunday Jump, and the Pilipino Workers Center. It is one of over 3,200 No Kings events taking place across all 50 states on March 28, 2026 — what organizers project to be the single largest day of domestic political protest in American history, with an estimated 9 million participants. The Bay Area alone saw over 220,000 demonstrators at the October 2025 No Kings protests. The flagship event is at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, featuring Bruce Springsteen, Bernie Sanders, Jane Fonda, and Joan Baez.
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Makibaka (mah-kee-BAH-kah)
Verb — To struggle, to fight, to resist
Makibaka is the Tagalog imperative that has served as the rallying cry of Filipino resistance for over a century. It first rose to prominence during the Katipunan revolution against Spain in the 1890s, was revived by student activists during the First Quarter Storm protests against Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in 1970, and became inseparable from the People Power movement of 1986. Paired with magkaisa — to unite — it forms the complete battle cry: Makibaka, magkaisa! Fight, unite! Today at Unidad Park, the Filipino American LAKAS Alliance invokes it once more — a reminder that Filipino resistance is not a moment. It is a tradition.
Power Belongs to the People: The Full Schedule
The afternoon concert and poetry showcase features an extraordinary lineup of Filipino American artists: jazz vocalist Charmaine Clamor, jazz musician Winston Raval, ZOS!MO, Kurt Tijamo, Roz, Eric Baul, and Peter Cornelio, with sounds by DJ Frostyyy. Visual artist Dar San Agustin presents a live art exhibit, grounding the day's protest energy in the visual traditions of Filipino storytelling. This is not just a march followed by a dispersal — it is a full community gathering, a conscious fusion of activism and art that reflects the Fil-Am instinct to organize not with anger alone, but with beauty, food, and fellowship.
The event is hosted by Indivisible–Historic Filipinotown/Echo Park (IHFEP), the Filipino American LAKAS Alliance, Sunday Jump, and the Pilipino Workers Center. For info and sponsorships: joe.indivisible.hifi@gmail.com.
A Convergence of Crises
As we enter the spring of 2026, the United States finds itself at a historical inflection point. The No Kings movement, now in its third and largest iteration, has evolved from a grassroots progressive response into a massive, multi-racial coalition. The catalysts are a grim trio of systemic failures: the intensified ICE operations that followed the fatal shootings of Renée Good, Keith Porter, and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis; the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, a conflict that many in our community see as a repeat of the "forever wars" that disproportionately claim the lives of immigrant recruits seeking a path to citizenship; and a pattern of executive overreach that challenges the very fabric of democratic checks and balances — sparking the movement's name and its foundational principle: in America, we have no kings.
For the 4.4 million Filipinos in the United States, these are not abstract policy debates. When ICE raids intensify, our kababayan — the undocumented TNT, tago ng tago — are the first to disappear from the nursing homes, the hospital floors, and the service sectors they prop up. When a new war begins, our youth, often lured by the promise of the GI Bill and a path to citizenship, are the ones shipped to the front lines. And when a president dismisses judicial authority, it registers differently in a community that watched Ferdinand Marcos do the same thing in 1972.
June 14, 2025 — No Kings 1: The first coordinated protests drew an estimated 5 million participants across more than 2,000 locations. In LA, Fil-Am organizers led a rally at Unidad Park in Historic Filipinotown.
October 18, 2025 — No Kings 2: Participation surged to an estimated 7 million across 2,700 events, fueled by the government shutdown, immigration raids, and National Guard deployments. The Bay Area alone saw 220,000 demonstrators.
March 28, 2026 — No Kings 3: More than 3,200 events across all 50 states and internationally. Organizers project 9 million participants, which would make it the single largest day of domestic political protest in U.S. history. The flagship rally is at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, featuring Bruce Springsteen, Bernie Sanders, Jane Fonda, and Joan Baez.
From EDSA to Echo Park
To understand why Fil-Ams are so visible in the No Kings movement, you have to look back forty years to the 1986 People Power Revolution. The diaspora experience is defined by a hyphenated trauma. Many Gen X and Boomer Fil-Ams fled the Philippines during the dark years of Martial Law under Ferdinand Marcos Sr. They arrived in America seeking the shining city on a hill, only to discover that the same shadows of authoritarianism they outran have a way of crossing oceans.
The dismantling of a free press. The vilification of the judiciary. The cult of personality. These are chapters from the Marcos and Duterte handbooks that read uncomfortably well in the American present. For the Fil-Am community, protesting on March 28 is an act of kapwa — a recognition of shared identity and a refusal to let an adopted home fall into the same traps as a motherland. This is not just about American politics; it is about a global solidarity. When we march from Unidad Park through the streets of Echo Park, or gather at San Francisco's Embarcadero Plaza or Chicago's Grant Park, we are signaling to the world that the Filipino spirit of bayanihan is a formidable defense against fascism, regardless of the flag it waves.
Voices from the Frontlines
The Veteran's Oath
Joe Arciaga is a U.S. Army Desert Storm veteran, a registered nurse, a USC alumnus, and the co-chair of the Filipino American LAKAS Alliance — the organization that brought the No Kings rallies to Historic Filipinotown in June 2025 and has not stopped organizing since. He is also a father of three and a grandfather of three. For Arciaga, the activism is not a departure from his military service. It is a continuation of it.
— Joe Arciaga, U.S. Army Desert Storm veteran and co-chair, Filipino American LAKAS Alliance
At the October No Kings rally, Arciaga told the crowd at Unidad Park that they had gathered to show their local community and neighbors that they care about what is happening in the country. "We want to show them that we are defending free speech and the right for peaceful assembly, and that we won't back down against the chaos, corruption, and cruelty of the current regime," he said. "Silence is complicity."
The Survivor's Warning
For Myrla Baldonado, the current climate is both trigger and call to action. In 1983, while organizing students near the U.S. Naval Base in Subic Bay, she was grabbed by state agents and became one of the Marcos dictatorship's "forced disappearances." She was taken to a secret location, water-tortured, and imprisoned for two years. Amnesty International helped secure her release. She was still recovering when the People Power Revolution toppled Marcos in 1986.
Baldonado immigrated to the United States in 2006, settling in Chicago and working as a home care worker for five dollars an hour. She organized domestic workers, won a White House "Champion of Change" recognition from the Obama administration in 2013, and was instrumental in passing the Illinois Domestic Worker Bill of Rights in 2016. At the June 2025 No Kings rally, she brought red carnations and passed them out to attendees — a symbol of nonviolent defiance.
— Myrla Baldonado, Marcos dictatorship survivor, domestic worker organizer, Obama White House Champion of Change
The Feminist's Battle Cry
At the October No Kings rally in Historic Filipinotown, Jollene Levid of AF3IRM — a transnational feminist organization fighting imperialism — climbed onto a park bench and read from notes she had just finished compiling on her phone. Her words cut through the Los Angeles afternoon:
"We are here today as Filipinos, Filipino Americans, as immigrants, workers, communities of color to remind Trump that this is not 1565. We Filipinos will never bow to a crown — from Spain to the Imperial Japanese and American colonizer, to Donald Trump and his cronies, we say NO KINGS!"
The reference to 1565 — the year Spanish colonizers first established a permanent settlement in Cebu — was deliberate. It placed the current American moment within a five-century Filipino history of resistance to empire. It was not just a slogan. It was a thesis.
Beyond the "Model Minority"
For too long, the Model Minority myth has painted Asian Americans as a silent, compliant block that keeps its head down and avoids the "messiness" of protest. The March 28 rally shatters this trope. The Fil-Am involvement is deeply rooted in lakas. We are not just participants; we are organizers. We are the nurses who see the casualties of a failing healthcare system, the teachers who see the impact of book bans, and the service workers who feel the bite of inflation and wartime austerity.
At these rallies, you will not just see slogans. You will see pasalubong — the tradition of bringing gifts — reimagined as mutual aid. You will see tita networks organizing carpools for those who cannot walk the full distance. You will see food vendors at Unidad Park, and the mini-concert and poetry showcase featuring Charmaine Clamor's jazz standards reimagined in Tagalog, Winston Raval's improvisations, the spoken-word fire of ZOS!MO and Kurt Tijamo, and Dar San Agustin's art exhibit anchoring the visual language of resistance. This is the hyphenated identity in its most potent form: using the communal traditions of the Philippines to safeguard the democratic institutions of America.
Where to Stand Today
The Historic Filipinotown rally begins with assembly and safety briefing at 10:30 AM, followed by the rally and march from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM at Unidad Park and Community Garden (Beverly Blvd at Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles). Food vendors are available from 11:30 AM to 3:00 PM. The mini-concert and poetry showcase runs from 1:30 PM to 3:00 PM.
Across the country, major rallies include the flagship event at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul (noon CT); San Francisco's Embarcadero Plaza (11:30 AM PT); downtown LA at Gloria Molina Grand Park (2:00 PM PT); Chicago's Grant Park (1:30 PM CT); NYC's Central Park South (2:00 PM ET); and the National Mall in Washington, D.C. (1:00 PM ET). A full map of all 3,200+ events is available at nokings.org.
The Inherited Resistance
I think about my own family when I write this. I think about a nine-year-old boy leaving Marikina in 1976, stepping off a plane in Chicago, not understanding that the country he was entering would one day test the same democratic principles his parents had crossed an ocean to find. I think about Tess, who came from Valencia, Bukidnon, and who would have been at one of these rallies — I am certain of it — had COVID-19 not taken her in December 2020, before the vaccines arrived, before any of us could fight back against that particular cruelty.
To the Gen Z Fil-Am who wonders if their voice matters: look at your history. Look at the lolo who stood in front of a tank on EDSA with nothing but a rosary and a dream. Look at the tita who worked three jobs to send you to a school where you could learn the word "justice." Look at Myrla Baldonado, who survived torture and built a movement from a five-dollar-an-hour wage. Look at Joe Arciaga, who swore an oath to the Constitution and is still keeping it.
Today is not just a protest. It is a family meeting on a national scale. It is a moment to say that we are not a model minority to be used as a wedge, but a vibrant, vocal part of the American fabric that knows exactly what a king looks like — and exactly how to stop one.
If our ancestors could topple a dictator with flowers and prayers four thousand miles away, what can we do here, in the heart of the empire, with our votes, our voices, and our kapwa?
Makibaka, magkaisa. Walang hari sa America. No kings.
Sources
- Inquirer.net — No Kings protest planned in LA's Historic Filipinotown this Saturday (March 2026)
- Inquirer.net — Filipino Americans join No Kings protests in Los Angeles (October 2025)
- Inquirer.net — Fil-Am Desert Storm veteran leads No Kings rally in LA (June 2025)
- The 19th — The Filipino-American legacy of fighting for freedom is taking on Trump (February 2026)
- The Xylom — Filipino American Health Care Workers Are Taking Their Legacy of Fighting for Freedom to Trump (February 2026)
- Democracy Now! — No Kings: March 28 Rallies Could Be Biggest Day of Protest in U.S. History (March 2026)
- TIME — Here's Which Cities Are Likely to Host the Biggest No Kings Protests (March 2026)
- Wikipedia — March 2026 No Kings protests
- Filipino Reporters — No to Billionaires! Labor Day Protest Rocks Historic Filipinotown
- NoKings.org — Official event page and rally locator
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J.F. (Jonjo) left the Philippines at age nine, spending a lifetime bridging the gap between his Marikina roots and his Chicago/Vallejo upbringing. A proud Hogan Spartan from East Vallejo and resident of LA/SF, he founded PinoyBuilt not just as a digital archive, but as a cultural compass for his three children to navigate their heritage, language, and identity with Pinoy Pride.
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