Why We’re Fundraising?

This fundraiser supports a community-led effort to afford legal fees to hire a non-profit attorney in Hawaii to restore rightful stewardship, protect the Moncado Church, and ensure Filipino history in Hawaiʻi is not overwritten through fraud, neglect, or unlawful occupation.

For community leaders, organizers, and proud Filipinos worldwide: this is a fight against the same forces we confront every day—dispossession, privatized power, and the normalization of taking what belongs to the community and calling it “legal.”

What’s Going On Right Now

In 2015, the Church was effectively taken after a couple:

Filed an illegal amended document to seize control of the property (see website for public document)
Allegedly they filed a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the rightful heir, barring her from accessing her own property

Since then, the violations has deepened and the red flags have multiplied:

The Moncado Foundation of America (501(c)(3)) reportedly has $418,000 in unfiled charitable assets since 2015.
Historical signage was removed, contributing to the public erasure of the site’s significance
Historical artifacts must be accounted for, raising urgent concerns about preservation and chain of custody
Parcels of land owned belonging to the church are being sold to home buyers, piece by piece, turning sacred heritage into someone else’s real estate.
Partisan political assembly is being held on church property, which may violate federal tax-law prohibitions enforced by the IRS for 501(c)(3) entities. (as of 12/18/25 the Aloha Conservative Alliance removed instagram posts, recorded posts are saved on file)

What Your Support Makes Possible

Your contribution fuels our efforts collective ability to:

Hire a non-profit laywer($$$$$)– who will take this back dated case.
Challenge the current occupants in court & reclaim the church for this community as rightful steward
Prevent the current occupants from selling the land for personal profit.

What’s at Stake

Without intervention, we risk losing an irreplaceable piece of Filipino American heritage—and allowing stolen land and property to be treated as legitimate through time and inaction.

This is a defining moment. Either we defend the integrity of the first Filipino historical site, or we watch it be erased, repurposed, and stripped of meaning while our community is told to "move on".

This is about community control, historical justice, and a future where Filipino people in Hawaiʻi are not just remembered—but respected, protected, and empowered.

Support the work to reclaim, protect, and preserve the Moncado Church—so it can once again serve its true purpose: a historic site held in trust for our people, our struggle, and our generations to come.

Save Moncado Church: Stop the Theft of a Filipino Heritage Site