DECOLONIZE EVERYTHING! Filipinos on the future of global development, health, human rights and peace | Filipina human rights stories

Decolonize Everything! Filipino Voices Charting the Future Beyond Oppression

In the crucible of a global pandemic and seismic protests against oppression – from racism simmering in the Global North to authoritarianism tightening its grip in the Global South – humanity finds itself at a crossroads. The collective “soul-searching” isn’t just about surviving these crises, but fundamentally reimagining futures built on justice, equity, and genuine well-being. What if the very foundations of our global systems – development, health, human rights, and peace – are steeped in colonial logic? This is the urgent question posed by a powerful Filipino dialogue gathered under the rallying cry: “Decolonize Everything!”

Inspired by the Tagalog concept of “kwentuhan” – a lively, overlapping exchange where stories intertwine and voices weave a richer tapestry – this conversation brings together four Filipinos whose lives and work straddle the local and the global, bringing invaluable decolonial perspectives to the world’s most pressing challenges.

Beyond Band-Aids: Decolonizing Global Development (Arbie Baguios)

For Arbie Baguios, an international development and humanitarian aid veteran with stints at ActionAid, Save the Children, UNICEF, and the Red Cross, the aid sector itself is long overdue for radical transformation. “We’ve spent decades applying Band-Aids to systems that are fundamentally broken, often perpetuating the very inequalities they claim to fight,” Baguios reflects. His initiative, Aid Re-imagined, is his answer to this crisis of conscience and effectiveness.

“Decolonizing development means shattering the top-down, paternalistic model,” Baguios asserts. “It demands centering the voices, agency, and knowledge of the communities we claim to serve. It means moving beyond charity towards justice – addressing the root causes of poverty: debt, unfair trade, extractive industries, and the concentration of power held largely by institutions rooted in the Global North.” For Baguios, truly effective aid isn’t about outsiders bringing solutions, but about dismantling structures that create dependency and empowering local actors to define and drive their own development trajectories.

Healing Broken Systems: Decolonizing Global Health (Renzo Guinto)

Public health physician Renzo Guinto, Chief Planetary Doctor at PH Lab and consultant for bodies like the WHO and World Bank, sees the COVID-19 pandemic not just as a health crisis, but as a stark symptom of a decaying, unequal global order. “The pandemic laid bare brutal truths: the profound health inequities between nations, the fragility of health systems unprepared for interconnected crises, and the failure to recognize health as a consequence and driver of environmental and social justice,” Guinto explains.

Decolonizing health, for Guinto, means acknowledging that “global health” is often a misnomer masking exploitation. “It requires centering Planetary Health – understanding human health as inseparable from the health of our planet and our societies,” he states. This means challenging Northern-centric models of disease control and healthcare delivery that often ignore local contexts and traditions. It means investing in community health systems, addressing social determinants of health globally (poverty, inequality, environmental degradation), and ensuring health policies are driven by evidence and ethics, not corporate or geopolitical interests. “Health justice is justice,” Guinto insists, “and it demands a radical restructuring of power within global health governance.”

Justice Beyond Borders: Decolonizing Human Rights (Ross Tugade)

As a lawyer with the Philippine Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and a researcher in human rights law and transitional justice, Ross Tugade operates at the gritty intersection of human rights theory and the lived realities of oppression and accountability. “The universal language of human rights risks becoming hollow, even complicit, if it doesn’t confront the historical and ongoing power imbalances embedded in its institutions and application,” Tugade cautions.

Tugade points to the challenges of applying universal standards within vastly different socio-political contexts, especially in the Global South facing authoritarian pressures. “Decolonizing human rights means moving beyond a purely legalistic framework to center the experiences of marginalized communities,” she emphasizes. It involves supporting transitional justice mechanisms that address historical injustices (colonial legacies, dictatorships) not just through legal prosecutions but through truth-telling, reparations, and systemic reforms that dismantle structures enabling oppression. For Tugade, it also means challenging the selective application of human rights standards by powerful nations and strengthening accountability at all levels, ensuring the CHR and similar bodies remain accessible and responsive to those they are meant to protect.

Peace Beyond Imposition: Decolonizing Global Security (Reg Guevara)

Reg Guevara, a seasoned peace practitioner deeply engaged with ASEAN dynamics and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has worked with multilateral giants like USAID, UN Women, and UNESCO. Yet, her happiest path, she says, is rooted in South-South Cooperation at the regional level. “True peace isn’t built through top-down diktats or external impositions,” Guevara reflects. “It grows organically from understanding shared histories, fostering dialogue between equals, and addressing the root grievances that fuel conflict – often stemming from historical injustice and exclusion.”

Decolonizing peacebuilding, for Guevara, means rejecting the militarized, state-centric approaches that dominate international security discourse. “It requires centering local peace actors, community voices, especially women and youth,” she stresses. “It means prioritizing conflict prevention, reconciliation, and building inclusive societies over forceful intervention or supporting repressive regimes under the guise of stability.” Having lived globally, Guevara finds solace and direction in Rumi’s wisdom: “If light is in your heart, you will find your way home.” This “home” for her is a peace based on justice, dignity, and equitable relationships, within communities and between nations, untethered from colonial hierarchies.

The Kwentuhan Continues: Forging a Collective Path

Facilitated by Frances Antoinette Cruz, Assistant Professor at UP Diliman and co-convenor of the Decolonial Studies Program, this kwentuhan is more than a discussion; it’s a call to action. Cruz frames it as an essential part of the collective reckoning demanded by our turbulent times.

The collective message from these Filipino perspectives is clear and urgent: Decolonization is not just an academic exercise or a historical debate; it is the practical, necessary imperative for our survival and flourishing. It requires:

Radical Restructuring: Dismantling top-down, extractive, and inequitable systems in development, health, governance, and security.
Centering Marginalized Voices: Prioritizing the agency, knowledge, and leadership of communities most impacted by injustice, particularly those in the Global South.
Power Redistribution: Shifting decision-making power from historically dominant institutions and nations towards more equitable, collaborative models like South-South cooperation.
Holistic Justice: Recognizing the interconnectedness of social, economic, racial, environmental, and human rights injustices, and addressing them together.
Reimagining Relationships: Moving away from paternalism and exploitation towards solidarity, mutual respect, and partnership.

As we navigate the complexities of the 21st century, the kwentuhan Arbie, Renzo, Ross, and Regine have begun offers a vital compass. It points towards futures not defined by the ghosts of colonialism, but by the light of justice and the collective wisdom of those ready to build a world where “home” for everyone is a reality. The conversation must continue, louder and broader, until “Decolonize Everything!” is not just a slogan, but the blueprint for our shared, equitable, and peaceful future.