A Deep Breath for Froilan Chan-Liongco
An Environmental Justice Hero Many May Never Know
by Raj Jayadev

For Froilan Chan-Liongco, breathe deep.

The toxics that may have once filled your lungs—the pollutants from the chemical waste plant that threatened cancer, asthma and birth defects—are no longer. Friolan Chan-Liongco, who passed away two weeks ago due to a heart attack, cleaned the air for you.

A former employee of the high tech toxic waste plant named Romic, Chan-Liongco stood up to the company who had for decades sacrificed East Palo Alto community members health in its pursuit of profit. Two years ago, at the age of 64, he was burned, literally, at Romic in a chemical explosion that lead to an 11-day hospital stay, chronic pain and unemployment. But Froilan refused to be bought, silent, or defeated and filed grievances with the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration. His filing, as it turned out, was the tipping point that lead to the demise of Romic. There had been decades of community organizing against Romic, imploring public health and safety agencies to hold the renegade company to standard. Friolan’s case made the chorus of calls by the community to shut down Romic undeniable, his was the voice they needed all along.

They have since shut down Romic, and East Palo Alto is cleaning the land of whatever contaminants lay hidden its soil. From now on, there is generations that may grow up not knowing what dangers once seeped, leaked and exploded there. They may never know of Friolan, a Filipino immigrant who was a David to a modern day Goliath, a multi-million dollar company backed by the most powerful industry known in the history of the world. And the old orthodoxy of organizing that once existed in utter isolation, if not opposition of each other —worker organizing inside the plant gates, community organizing outside—was debunked by Friolan’s gesture by reaching out to East Palo Alto, and the residents receiving him as one of their own.

That relationship, that synergy that shut down Romic, was not just strategic, it was caring, personal, sincere. It is why at Friolan Chan-Liongco’s viewing last week, amongst his immediate family and friends, three rows were filled with East Palo Alto youth from Youth United for Community Action(YUCA). They came because their common cause also made them family. And sleeping peacefully through the viewing ceremony was baby Kierce, hardly a month old, in her mother Annie’s arms. Annie, the 24-year-old director of YUCA, fought Romic since she was a fourteen-year-old.

Baby Keirce will have never met Froilan, but his life protected hers, saved her from perils that previous generations had to bare.

Take a deep breath East Palo Alto, and honor Froilan Chan-Liongco.

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