AJ Santos on Immigrating to America, Filipino Rights Organizing, and Filipino Punk

AJ Santos is a punk. He grew up in the Philippines, playing in punk bands, running in gangs, and using drugs. People referred to him and his friends as “scums of society.” In 2013, AJ immigrated to the United States, where he built a new life for himself. He started some punk bands in New York, called Namatay Sa Ingay and Material Support. He also started organizing with Migrante International, a migrant rights organization that is part of the National Democratic Movement of the Philippines. With Migrante, AJ and other Filipino immigrants lobby the U.S. government and raise awareness about the issues facing their friends and family back home. Since Rodrigo Duterte began his War on Drugs after becoming president of the Philippines in 2016, many of AJ’s friends have been killed, jailed, or forced into hiding. AJ was never planning on becoming an activist, but those circumstances changed that. “I need to do this because I have to. It’s not even a choice for me. I’m not trying to be edgy. I didn’t choose this life. I don’t even consider myself an activist. I’m just a punk rocker. I’m just a punk rocker who happened to be politicized.” We spoke with AJ at host Reed Dunlea’s home studio in Brooklyn, about growing up surrounded by poverty in the Philippines, punk as a sanctuary, his mom’s fight against the Marcos dictatorship, moving to the U.S. to find better opportunities, being a father, lyrics about “bourgie white girls,” mourning from afar, and how to fuck the police and the government.