Let's be clear about what we know: Prijoles was among those killed during an armed clash involving the New People's Army, the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Philippine government. The details beyond that remain murky, and that murkiness is precisely the problem.

His family deserves a full accounting — not just from Philippine authorities, but from anyone with knowledge of the circumstances that led him there. Was he a combatant? An observer? Did he fully understand the risks? These aren't idle questions. They matter for a family in mourning, and they matter for a Bay Area community that has long-standing ties to Filipino political causes.

From a liberty perspective, every individual has the right to advocate for the causes they believe in, even deeply controversial ones. But there's a hard line between activism and armed insurgency, and the people around someone making that journey — mentors, organizations, community leaders — bear some moral responsibility to be honest about where that line is. Idealism without transparency gets people killed.

The Philippine government's track record on extrajudicial violence and military transparency is, to put it charitably, abysmal. Activists, journalists, and civilians have been caught in the crossfire of counterinsurgency operations for years, often with little accountability. If Prijoles was wrongly targeted or killed under questionable circumstances, that demands scrutiny — from U.S. officials, from human rights organizations, from anyone who claims to care about the sanctity of life abroad as much as at home.

We hope Prijoles' family gets the answers they're looking for. Whatever his political commitments, he was a person — a Bay Area resident with people who loved him. That should count for something.