Welcome to the Empire Files podcast. This is Abby Martin. This is the audio version of each episode of the Empire Files hosted on Telesaur English. You can watch every episode at the Empire Files. TV.

Human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry that entraps millions of people across the world. The majority of victims are abused

and living in inhumane conditions. Many caught in this dark web originate from the Philippines,

where human beings have become the number one export. In our last episode, I visited Damayan,

a Filipino domestic worker-led group that organizes trafficking victims.

Its founder, Linda Wallachon, explained these high numbers.

There's no other option for these women to support their children except to continue working, you know, in their, you know, receiving country like the U.S.

And if I may just remind, you know, the government of the United States, our country was ruined,

you know, primarily by the United States.

Of course, the economic crisis can't be looked at in a vacuum, and all the root causes began

long ago.

The Philippine islands have been choked by colonial powers for the past five centuries.

Its mosaic of over 7,000 culturally distinct islands were first claimed by the Spanish Empire in 1525.

Spain occupied and ruled the Philippines for the next three centuries.

This long history of colonial domination is, at its heart, a history of resistance.

At least 300 large-scale armed revolts were carried out by indigenous Filipinos against the Spanish

Empire. One of the fiercest independence fighters was a woman known as Gabriella Salang, born in 1731.

She rose to general in the indigenous Army and personally led the longest-lasting revolt against the colonizers,

all by the age of only 31 years old, when she was captured and executed by Spanish troops.

In 1896, Andres Bonifacio and his underground organization, the Kari Poonan,

declared the beginning of the Philippine Revolution with an uprising against colonial forces in Manila.

The revolution quickly spread through the constellation of islands.

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