SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior In­ves­tiga­tive Re­porter

shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

As a fresh face in the land­scape of T&T’s protests, Alyssa Phillip, 25, has quick­ly be­come the vi­brant new sym­bol of ad­vo­ca­cy and jus­tice.

Hav­ing spent a night be­hind bars re­cent­ly for her role in lead­ing a protest out­side the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions’ of­fice, Port-of-Spain, to high­light the fa­tal shoot­ing of Joshua Sama­roo and the se­ri­ous wound­ing of his girl­friend, Ka­ia Sealy, on Jan­u­ary 20, 2026, Phillip now stands as a vi­brant young leader, one who isn’t afraid to stand up and speak out.

Move­ment for So­cial Jus­tice leader David Ab­du­lah, who stood in sol­i­dar­i­ty with Phillip dur­ing her protests, said he had full ad­mi­ra­tion for her.

“It’s good to see that young peo­ple are com­ing for­ward and are com­mit­ted, strong and stand­ing firm in what they be­lieve in,” Ab­du­lah said yes­ter­day.

“It’s very heart­en­ing. That’s why I felt the need to sup­port her. I see def­i­nite­ly a young woman who’s a leader. She has be­come the voice of a large sec­tion of T&T.”

He de­scribed Phillip as an ar­tic­u­late and coura­geous woman “who knows what she is about.”

Ab­du­lah has been ar­rest­ed for protest­ing sev­er­al times.

In 2009, the union boss was ar­rest­ed dur­ing an an­ti-tax protest in the cap­i­tal city.

Three years ago, he was al­so ar­rest­ed for ob­struct­ing the free pas­sage­way in vi­o­la­tion of Sec­tion 51 of the High­way Act fol­low­ing a con­fronta­tion be­tween po­lice and demon­stra­tors over the im­ple­men­ta­tion of the Prop­er­ty Tax Bill.

En­vi­ron­men­tal ac­tivist Wayne Kublals­ingh viewed Phillip’s stance as ex­tra­or­di­nar­i­ly com­mit­ted.

“Alyssa is very pas­sion­ate about the cause that she has been fight­ing.”

He said Phillip has a per­sis­tence in her that he has not seen in a young per­son for quite a while.

Kublals­ingh said Phillip has demon­strat­ed through her courage and tenac­i­ty that she has both light and heat in her.

“I think light and heat are im­por­tant. She has light, which is the in­tel­lect, ar­tic­u­la­tion and the ca­pac­i­ty to speak well. Alyssa al­so has the heat, which is the emo­tion. And that is what I find is very strik­ing and ad­mirable about her.

“She has to be her own per­son...she has to be her own woman. She has to find her own course. If she per­sists long enough, she would de­vel­op in­to an ex­tra­or­di­nary, fine woman in lead­er­ship.”

Kublals­ingh him­self was ar­rest­ed mul­ti­ple times for his ac­tivism against ma­jor projects and en­vi­ron­men­tal con­cerns.

His ac­tions have al­so led to con­fronta­tions with law en­force­ment, re­sult­ing in his ar­rest.

Charges that were laid in 2012, he said, are still be­fore the court.

He said if Phillip’s fight for jus­tice is proven to be right, she would have a long way to go.

“If it is proven that there was some­thing oth­er­wise, then I think her cause would fall flat.”

So­cial ac­tivist Abeo Jack­son tipped her hat to Phillip for speak­ing out and stand­ing firm.

Known for her ad­vo­ca­cy in en­vi­ron­men­tal jus­tice, racial equal­i­ty and pro­tec­tion of nat­ur­al re­sources, Jack­son said there are women in pow­er who failed to un­der­stand the role of be­ing a ma­tri­arch in this space.

“I am ex­treme­ly proud of Alyssa and I know it’s hard. I don’t want her to feel that she is do­ing it alone. She shouldn’t have to car­ry it alone. We dey with yuh.”

She said the protests are not about pol­i­tics but about how the State and the sys­tems op­er­ate.

Jack­son said she has been in the back­ground of the protests, sup­port­ing Phillip.

She said cit­i­zens should not wait for one per­son with a cape to save them.

She said this is a time for uni­ty among the com­mu­ni­ties.

“I think Alyssa is a bea­con for that. Be­cause what she has done is ral­ly­ing com­mu­ni­ties across all of the lines.”

Yes­ter­day, the Caribbean As­so­ci­a­tion for Fem­i­nist Re­search and Ac­tion (CAFRA) is­sued a press re­lease ex­press­ing its sol­i­dar­i­ty with Phillip and oth­er pro­test­ers for their courage, lead­er­ship and pub­lic ad­vo­ca­cy.

CAFRA called on state au­thor­i­ties to up­hold cit­i­zens’ con­sti­tu­tion­al rights, ex­er­cise re­straint in re­spond­ing to peace­ful demon­stra­tions, and en­sure al­le­ga­tions in­volv­ing ex­ces­sive force or ex­tra-ju­di­cial killing are sub­ject to trans­par­ent and in­de­pen­dent in­ves­ti­ga­tion.