Martyrs Of The Philippine Revolution

With overwhelming revolutionary outrage against the ruling classes and their fascist butchers, we are informing all cadres and members of the Party, all Red fighters of the New People's Army (NPA), all revolutionary forces and the entire Filipino people, of the death of Ka Laan (Benito Tiamzon) and Ka Bagong-tao (Wilma Austria-Tiamzon), leading and most respected leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the entire revolutionary movement in the country.

Ka Laan and Ka Bagong-tao were abominably and brutally murdered by the fascist monsters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on August 21, 2022, after they were captured while aboard two vans as they traveled towards the coasts of Catbalogan City. They were seized between 12 noon and 1:00 p.m. They were unarmed, not even with small firearms.

They were ten in all who were held, subjected to beatings and other forms of torture, before subsequently murdered. Along with Ka Laan and Ka Bagong-tao were Joel Arceo (Ka Divino, a subregional secretary in Eastern Visayas), Ka Yen, Ka Jaja, Ka Matt, Ka Ash, Ka Delfin, Ka Lupe and Ka Butig. According to the team who conducted the investigation, the faces of the comrades were shattered apparently by hard objects. Others showed clear marks of gunshot wounds.

To conceal their crime and erase all traces of evidence, the Joint Task Force Storm and the Task Force Trident of the AFP wove a story of a mid-sea encounter. In the early morning hours of August 22, 2022, the bodies of the murdered revolutionaries were dumped into a boat and towed to the middle of the sea before it was detonated somewhere between Catbalogan and Tarangnan island. Only eight bodies were reportedly recovered.

The Political Bureau and the Executive Committee received confirmation of the capture and killing of Ka Laan and Ka Bagong-tao a few days thereafter. Over the next weeks and months, a thorough investigation was conducted to piece the details behind this heinous crime.

We hold directly and principally responsible for the fascist brutality of the massacre of Ka Benito Tiamzon, Ka Wilma Austria and eight other revolutionaries the following: Ferdinand Marcos Jr, commander-in-chief of the AFP, Lt. Gen. Bartolome Bacarro, then chief of staff of the AFP, Gen. Edgardo de Leon, then head of the JTF-Storm and the 8th Infantry Division, and Brig. Gen. Marceliano Teofino, head of the Intelligence Service of the AFP. We also hold the US military directly involved in the crime through the Joint Special Operations Task Force Trident, a unit that is directly commanded, trained and armed by the US. Marcos and his cohorts must be indicted before the relevant courts.

True heroes of the Filipino people

The Central Committee declares husband and wife Ka Benito Tiamzon and Ka Wilma Austria as martyrs and true heroes of the Filipino people. They dedicated their entire lives to serving the opppressed and exploited masses and gave all their body and minds to advancing the aspirations for national freedom and democracy, socialism and communism.

From the deep recesses of the hearts of all Filipino revolutionaries, the Political Bureau and the entire Central Committee expresses their deep sympathies to the children and grandchildren of Ka Laan and Ka Bagong-tao.

Ka Laan and Ka Bagong-tao were masters of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and of the theory and practice of the Philippine revolution. Guided by Comrade Jose Maria Sison, they outstandingly led the Central Committee and the New People's Army through almost three decades of waging protracted people's war.

Ka Laan and Ka Bagong-tao were both children of the revolutionary upsurge of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Ka Laan was born on March 21, 1951 and grew up in Marikina, Metro Manila. Ka Bagong-tao was born on December 21, 1952 hails from Pasig City. They were both students of Jose Rizal High School. They entered the University of the Philippines around the same time in the late 1960s, became writers of the Philippine Collegian, and became members of national democratic youth organizations.

They both served as organizers of workers and peasants. Before being appointed to the central organs of the Party, both led efforts in advancing the revolutionary movements in various regions. From Manila, they were transferred to Cebu in 1974 to do organizing work among workers. They were transferred to Samar the following year to carry out initial social investigation and deepen grasp of antifeudal struggles among other tasks. In 1976, Ka Laan served as secretary of the Eastern Visayas region, while Ka Bagong-tao was deputy secretary. Ka Bagong-tao was among those who led the forces in Central Luzon during the early 1980s during which time the armed struggle and broad mass struggles of workers and peasants raged against the US-Marcos dictatorship. Ka Laan's leadership of the revolutionary movement in Eastern Visayas was characterized by vigorous antifeudal struggles and armed resistance.

Ka Laan and Ka Bagong-tao played key roles in carrying out the Second Great Rectification Movement (SGRM) in 1992-1998 which reaffirmed the Party's Marxist-Leninist-Maoist stand and basic principles, and strategy and tactics of waging protracted people's war to carry forward the people's democratic revolution. They superbly led the defense of Party Central Committee and frustrated the attempts of the revisionist traitors to lead astray or divide the Party. Through their leadership, they pulled the Party from the brink of dissolution and guided the Philippine revolution back to the path of advance and growth.

Through three decades, Ka Laan served as the chairman of the Executive Committee of the Central Committee in its day-to-day leadership of the Philippine revolution. Ka Bagong-tao served as the general secretary of the Central Committee. During the Party's Second Congress in 2016, both were reelected to the Central Committee and to the central organs of the Party.

During the past decades, they performed their individual responsibilities, even as they served as partners in performing the difficult tasks of leading the Party. They worked side by side with the other leading cadres of the Party in the Central Committee, Political Bureau and Executive Committee, in serving as beacons of the people's democratic revolution in the Philippines.

They led the drafting of the documents of the Central Committee and the Executive Committee which further enriched the theories of waging the people's democratic revolution in the Philippines. The memoranda and directives of the EC-CC further elaborated and deepened the concept of the protracted people's war and guerrilla warfare. They dedicated themselves to helping Party cadres tighten their grasp of the principles of waging people's war in an all-rounded manner, and of the crucial importance of combining its three components — armed struggle, agrarian revolution and mass base building.

The writings of Ka Laan and Ka Bagong-tao now form part of the rich treasure chest of revolutionary theory of the Philippine revolution serving as its contribution to the enrichment of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. These will be collected by the Central Committee into one or several books to serve as reference for the Party's cadres.

Ka Laan and Ka Bagong-tao were captured in 2014 and were imprisoned for more than two years. They were released in 2016 to serve in the negotiating panel of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in peace negotiations with the Duterte regime. When Duterte terminated peace negotiations and ordered the capture and killing of the personages of the NDFP, the Party and NPA, Ka Laan and Ka Bagong-tao immediately took to the guerrilla fronts.

Duterte spent hundreds of millions of pesos to pursue the headquarters of Ka Laan and Ka Bagong-tao and of the Central Committee since 2017. The regime carried out wanton aerial bombing and artillery shelling which caused gross devastation to the lives and livelihood of the broad masses supporting the revolutionary movement. Thousands of fascist troops were deployed in the enemy's vile scheme to end the life of Ka Laan and Ka Bagong-tao and decapitate the Party.

The enemy may have succeeded in murdering Ka Laan and Ka Bagong-tao, but they have been frustrated in their aim of destroying the Party's leadership. In the same way that when giant trees fall in the forest, the sun's rays now passes through giving warmth and strength to the new pillars of the Party and NPA.

Strong collective leadership of the Party's Central Committee

The death of Comrades Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria-Tiamzon, followed by the passing away of Ka Joma last December 16, 2022, are without a doubt, a great loss to the Party, particularly to the Central Committee. Neither can one deny the heavy impact of the death or demise of other leading cadres of the Party over the past years including Julius Giron (Ka Nars), Jorge Madlos (Ka Oris), Menandro Villaneuva (Ka Bok), Antonio Cabanatan (Ka Manlimbasog), Eugenia Magpantay (Ka Fiel), Mariano Adlao (Ka Panoy) and others.

However, during their period of leadership of the Party and Philippine revolution, they trained thousands of cadres and revolutionaries who now are ready to fill their void and take on the heavy tasks and responsibilities. Some may have gone, but in their place are far greater number of cadres and leaders who are determined to grow amid great challenges.

Led by the Political Bureau, the Central Committee and other leading organs of the Party were quickly reconstituted and revitalized. Replacement cadres were immediately appointed and are now performing the daily work and tasks of leadership. Without fear, they have accepted the challenges of leadership. The Central Committee continues to strengthen its work of guiding the leading committees and cadres in the regional committees and its other central organs. The Central Committee is exerting all-out effort to strengthen the Party ideologically, politically and organizationally.

On the initiative of the Political Bureau and Central Committee, Party cadres at all levels of leadership are collectively undertaking all-out efforts to raise their theoretical and practical knowledge of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, the Party's basic ideological, political and organizational principles, and the strategy and tactics of waging the people's democratic revolution through protracted people's war.

Party cadres are leading efforts to sum-up experiences, overcome weaknesses and rectify errors. They are determined to carry out self-remoulding in accordance with proletarian ideology, guard against and repudiate erroneous ideas, improve the democratic style of work and put into practice criticism and self-criticism as method to strengthen unity and improve their work. All Party cadres are ready to make heavy sacrifices while harnessing the strength of the entire membership to surmount all difficulties and challenges, and advance towards the path of a new revolutionary upsurge.

The Central Committee is now leading efforts to further strengthen the people's democratic revolution. The entire membership of the Party are firmly united on the basis of the plans and tasks set forth by the Central Committee as contained in the directives issued by the Executive Committee. All Party committees have been tasked to arouse, organize and mobilize the masses and lead their economic and political struggles, in their fight against anti-people neoliberal policies, the enemy's fascist terrorism and intensifying US intervention, and to build the broadest united front to expose, isolate and fight the US-Marcos fascist regime. The Central Committee has also tasked the New People's Army to roundly frustrate the enemy's all-out offensives, further expand and strengthen links with the broad peasant masses, thoroughly galvanize antifeudal struggles, expand, strengthen and increase the number of mass organizations in the countryside, and stoke and scatter the flames of guerrilla warfare.

The Central Committee is currently strengthening the Party organization in accordance with the principle of democratic centralism. Collective leadership is being fully strengthened at all levels. Rules and discipline are firmly being observed. To build unity, efforts to hold regular meetings and conferences are being carried out in earnest. Policies and directives are firmly implemented in order that the entire Party marches as one body. Leading Party committees regularly and promptly submit reports to the higher organs. At all levels of leadership, the work at the lower levels are closely supervised alongside the situation of the masses.

In the face of the worsening crisis of the semicolonial and semifeudal system and gross suffering, exploitation and oppression under imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism, the broad masses of the Filipino people are strongly determined to persevere in revolutionary struggle. The Party is resolved more than ever to arouse, organize and mobilize the broad masses of the Filipino people, and lead the revolutionary armed struggle and revolutionary mass movement across the country.

Guided by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and by strengthening collective leadership and the unity of all patriotic and democratic classes, it is with certainty that our great Party together with the Filipino people will carry forward the national democratic revolution to greater heights and attain even bigger victories in the coming years.

Inspired by the memories of Ka Laan, Ka Bagong-tao, Ka Joma, and all great martyrs and heroes of the proletariat ang Filipino people, let us give all our energy to shoulder the difficult tasks in advancing the aspirations for genuine freedom, democracy and socialism.

Long live the memories of Ka Benito Tiamzon and Ka Wilma Austria!

Wave high the red banner of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!

Fight for national freedom and democracy!

Persevere on the path of the national democratic revolution and its socialist future!

Carry forward the protracted people's war!

Long live the New People's Army!

Long live the Communist Party of the Philippines!

Long live the toiling masses and the Filipino people!

The whole party and revolutionary movement give extraordinary honor to Jose Maria Sison (Amado Guerrero), founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines, and greatest Filipino and revolutionary leader of the past century. For so long, Ka Joma served as guide and beacon, bastion and bulwark of the Party and the Philippine revolution.

Ka Joma was a master of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, the ideology of the proletariat. He led the Party's re-establishment and the resurgence of the Philippine revolution. He studied the basic character of the semicolonial and semifeudal system in the Philippines, exposed the three monsters of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism that primarily enslave the broad Filipino masses, and illuminated the path of national-democratic revolution as the road towards the people's liberation from poverty and oppression.

Ka Joma all-sidedly strengthened the Party. He taught and trained thousands of cadres of the Party's Central Committee, central organs and regional committees, who led the Party's nationwide expansion and strengthening. He led the establishment of the New People's Army in 1969 and trained and guided the first ranks of Red commanders and fighters. In 1973, he led the establishment of the National Democratic Front (NDF). Under his leadership, the people's war spread like a prairie fire across the country.

When captured by the enemy, he was subjected to nine years of torture inside the fascist dungeons, yet his revolutionary spirit prevailed. He was freed when Marcos's dictatorship was dismantled by the powerful surge of the people's struggle and armed struggle.

Ka Joma was forced into exile in 1987 when his passport was cancelled preventing his return to the country. For over 35 years, he stayed in The Netherlands in a small apartment with his family, and in the care of Filipino migrant workers. No matter the distance, he remained close to the Philippine revolution and gave sharp analyses and timely advice. Ka Joma's exile worked to the advantage of the revolutionary movement as it provided him the conditions and opportunity to enrich the theory of the Philippine revolution based on its ongoing practice. When the Party was led astray, Ka Joma became the light that served as guide for the Second Great Rectification Movement.

He served as the NDF's chief political consultant in peace negotiations with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and excellently guided the forging of historical agreements in line with the aim of achieving just and lasting peace. Thus, the militarist agents of US imperialism, who oppose efforts to resolve the social and economic roots of civil war through negotiations, relentlessly persecuted him.

He was arrested in 2007 in a fabricated case which was eventually dismissed for lacking evidence. He was labeled a “terrorist” by the US and its puppets, an accusation dismissed in a European court in 2009. He was repeatedly accused of masterminding the Plaza Miranda (1971) bombing even though this was dismissed by a Manila court in 1994 for lack of evidence.

It is undeniable that in Philippine history, no one surpasses the work done by Ka Joma in rousing the Filipino people to stand up and fight. Millions of workers, peasants, pettybourgeois intellectual, ordinary employees and professionals across the country rose up, joined forces and took action under the Red flag and the torch of the revolution. All national-democratic activists, Red fighters and Party cadres began their enlightenment and roused by the “Philippine Society and Revolution” (PSR), the most comprehensive analysis of the country's history and conditions.

Because of his leadership, lasting contribution, and lifelong dedication to advancing the Philippine revolution for genuine national freedom and democracy, Comrade Jose Maria Sison is a great hero of the Filipino people. Indeed, he is the greatest of all.

In his death, Ka Joma bequeathed the Party a golden treasure chest brimming with theory of the Philippine revolution. Let us use and further enrich it through our current practice and through the future of waging people's democratic revolution to the socialist revolution. Its eternal brilliance will serve as our light through the difficult path. Keep his great memory and legacy eternally Red. Firmly continue the revolution which he started with our great martyrs and heroes.

Let us be masters in the theories and lessons left by Ka Joma. Carry forward a movement to review his writings, from the PSR to the “Five Volumes” collection of his articles. Tighten our grasp of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism which is the class standpoint, viewpoint and method of thinking of Ka Joma. A firm grasp of his ideas and guidance is one of the keys to further advancing the Philippine revolution.

The Communist Party of the Philippines is noble. When Ka Joma re-established it, he was aware of the Party's role as a vanguard of the proletariat that would lead the new democratic revolution, and the entire historical period of the socialist revolution to communist society. It will cover the time beyond a person's life or generation.

The Party was fortunate that Ka Joma's life lasted for more than six decades for him to lead and guide the practical movement. In the second Congress in 2016, the Party paid tribute and expressed its gratitude to Ka Joma.

During Ka Joma's lifetime, several lines of cadres have taken the reins of the Party's leadership. Certainly, several more generations of Party cadres—perhaps some are yet to be born—will be readers and students of Ka Joma's writings, as well as of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and will embrace and lead the great aspirations of the proletariat.

Our Central Committee has declared ten days of mourning that will end on the 54th anniversary of the Party. Let us dedicate this day to pay tribute to the memory of Ka Joma. Let us use this occasion to stand together, and reaffirm our determination to march forward and wave high the Red flag of the Party and revolution.

Highest revolutionary tribute to Ka Ella and all our people's martyrs and heroes! Fight and frustrate the counterrevolutionary war of the tyrannical US-Duterte regime and carry on the people's war to new and greater heights!

The Negros Island Regional Party Committee accords the highest revolutionary honor to Kerima Lorena "Ka Ella" Tariman and Joery Dato-on "Ka Pabling" Cocuba who died in the fascist hands of the Philippine Army's 79th Infantry Battalion in an encounter on August 20, 2021 at Brgy. Kapitan Ramon, Silay City, Negros Occidental. Ka Ella, 42, was a member of the regional Party committee on the Island and the secretary of the front Party committee in Northern Negros. Ka Pabling, 38, was a long-time peasant organizer who had just joined a unit of the Roselyn Jean Pelle Command of the the New People's Army (RJPC-NPA).

We share in the grief of the family, friends, comrades and the countless oppressed and exploited masses that our new martyrs have selflessly served in Negros and, in the case of Ka Ella, in other parts of the country. We are one in the call to turn such deep sorrow over the loss of exemplary proletarian revolutionaries into a powerful collective resolve to fight and frustrate the counterrevolutionary war of the tyrannical US-Duterte regime and carry on the people's war to new and greater heights.

The news of Ka Ella's death immediately prompted her closest colleague's and various other quarters to offer their thoughts in remembrance of her invaluable contributions to the student movement, cultural work, human rights defence and struggle for genuine land reform. This has highlighted Ka Ella's personal journey and noteworthy achievements as artist and activist, poet and patriot.

More importantly, this has also brought to the fore, in no uncertain terms, the justness and necessity of armed revolution, the path towards which appears to be getting wider each day in the midst of tyranny and crisis, and also on account of the profound inspiration and courage that could be drawn from Ka Ella's supreme sacrifice and those of other revolutionary martyrs.

Three years ago, Ka Ella brought with her to Negros not only an unwavering commitment to take part in the people's war on the Island but also an already rich accumulation of revolutionary practice with the New People's Army from her earlier assignments in other regions.

In 2003, shortly after giving birth to her son, Ka Ella joined the National Cultural Bureau's armed cultural squad that was attached at different times to various guerrilla platoons in the Bicol Region. She played a crucial role in the successful breakthroughs of the said unit in integrating cultural work in mass base building, agrarian revolution and armed struggle in the guerrilla zones of Sorsogon, Catanduanes and Masbate.

Ka Ella was the chief writer of the cultural training modules of the Artista at Manunulat ng Sambayanan (ARMAS-NDFP) which are now standards in both the countryside and the cities. She was also part of the editorial team of the 2005 Ulos, the cultural journal of the national democratic movement, which featured the works of Red fighters and peasant mass activists of Bicol that participated in the literary workshops that Ka Ella herself facilitated.

There were two instances during this period when Ka Ella had to leave the guerrilla zone to recover from successive miscarriages. Yet even in such state of physical and emotional distress, she didn't allow herself to idle away her time and be detached from any practical or theoretical revolutionary activity. In these brief intervals she volunteered to curate a couple of Ulos issues, mobilizing in the process a number of artist friends and allies for translation or illustration work. She also wrote several cultural reviews while following a strict reading regimen of the Marxist classics.

In 2007 Ka Ella took on a more comprehensive duty and direct territorial responsibility when she was assigned to a guerrilla front in Camarines Sur. There she took the helm of a guerrilla platoon as its political instructor. A recent statement by the East Camarines Sur's Tomas Pilapil Command in honor of Ka Ella, or Ka Akira and Ka Kyla as she was known in those parts, attests to her tireless and thorough efforts at social investigation, mass and Party education, mass base expansion and consolidation, anti-feudal campaigns, as well as military work, the fruits of which the people and revolutionary forces in the Partido areas and the Caramoan Peninsula continue to reap up to this day.

Ka Ella found herself several times in the thick of armed battles with fascist enemy troops in Bicol. In all these, she was always brave and alert. She was always the first one to tell the comrades not to panic or to rouse them from demoralization. She personally attended to the wounded and made sure that basic guerrilla items that were left behind like clothes and hammocks were immediately replenished.

Already way past her teens when she was deployed to Camarines Sur, Ka Ella, because of her petite frame and youngish features, was nonetheless fondly referred to by the masses as the intelligent nene who carried an armalite and chewed betel. Chewing betel, she found out, was one of the easiest ways to start a conversation with the barrio folk whom she genuinely cherished as her teachers, and who loved her in return for exemplifying, in her own simple ways, the essence of being one of the best daughters of the people. On many occasions she became mother, too, to barefoot children of poor peasants, even as she constantly had to overcome the pain of being away from her own child.

In 2010 Ka Ella transferred to the Eastern Visayas. As Ka Conching, she served as deputy secretary of the main front of the Arnulfo Ortiz Command in Western Samar.

She was vocal of her appreciation of the theoretical fluency of the revolutionary forces, organized masses and children of comrades in Samar which she found quite high and humbling. Ka Ella particularly admired the region's KPA or Kurso Para sa mga Aktibista, an all-in-one manual for revolutionaries which she said every guerrilla front in the country should have.

She was likewise very open about her views on the need to decisively combat conservatism in military work and mass base building. Ka Ella was one among those who proposed that the guerrilla front resolve to establish Red political power in the middle terrains and coasts in order to reach a greater number of peasant communities and to have a wider space for maneuver.

Her stint in Samar was, however, cut short when her husband was captured by the military in 2011. This forced her to go back to Metro Manila to better supervise the campaign for his release which, thanks largely to her relentless endeavours, gained broad national and international support and eventually compelled the Department of Justice in 2013 to dismiss his case.

Returning to the guerrilla zone in 2018, this time in the country's hacienda capital, Ka Ella set out to quickly readjust herself physically and mentally to the rigors of armed revolutionary life. That she was able to master both Hiligaynon and Cebuano in so short a time was proof not so much of her unique sense of language but of her sheer determination to fully and effectively perform her new tasks.

As a regional cadre, Ka Ella actively took part in the formulation of the current five year program of the Party in Negros. She participated in the summing up of the last twenty-five years of revolutionary experience on the Island which enriched her understanding of the region and where she was generous in sharing her insights.

Ka Ella contributed a vital segment to the updated regional social investigation and class analysis (SICA) document, particularly on the history of the hacienda system in Negros and its present operation. She wrote a detailed primer on the current situation of sugar farm workers and mill workers on which the regional antifeudal campaign plan of 2020 was based.

As secretary of the front Party committee in Northern Negros, Ka Ella worked closely with responsible cadres and Red fighters in rectifying tendencies of conservatism and empiricism in various aspects of political and military work amid the brutal implementation of Memorandum Order 32 and Executive Order 70 on the Island.

The front was able to expand to other areas to deny the AFP of effective focus while still maintaining political guidance among the revolutionary masses in highly militarized communities. Collective food production and medical missions were organized in response to the COVID 19 pandemic in Northern Negros. The RJPC also heeded the people's demand to punish the operators of destructive large-scale quarrying.

The RJPC, in a eulogy, expressed its gratitude to Ka Ella for consistently striving to share her knowledge to her comrades and the masses while humbly learning from them as well. She inspired them to persevere and be competent in their duties. She was pivotal in revitalizing revolutionary propaganda and education in Northern Negros.

Even before Ka Ella's death, fascist 303rd and 302nd brigades had long been bragging that the Northern and Southeast Negros fronts had already been reduced to insignificance. Now they delude themselves further with the belief that the Northern Negros front had finally been dismantled with the passing away of its leader. While Ka Ella's death certainly amount to a great loss, many more cadres and revolutionary forces including those whom Ka Ella herself had helped develop, are all willing and capable to collectively lead the people's army and the masses in fighting and frustrating the brutal counterrevolutionary campaign of the fascist armed forces in Northern Negros.

As of this writing, Ka Pabling's family has yet to claim his remains for fear of what the fascist Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) might do to them. Meanwhile, there is reason to believe that Ka Ella was an hors de combat (a combatant who was no longer in a position to fight) when the 79th IB found her. The fascist military troops either left her to bleed to death or just finished her off.

There is no other way of seeking justice at this time for Ka Ella and Ka Pabling's death, no higher tribute to their martyrdom, than to persevere in intensive and extensive guerrilla warfare based on an ever widening and deepening mass base. The revolutionary movement in Negros must launch greater resistance to heightened oppression and exploitation on the Island as the tyrannical Duterte regime's end is fast approaching. The fascist AFP must be punished for all violations of human rights and utter disregard of international humanitarian law and protocols of war.

We call on the finest sons and daughters of the people to emulate Ka Ella's conviction of serving the people and the revolution. Join the New People's Army and take part in advancing the people's war to new and greater heights.

Long live the martyrs and heroes of the people's democratic revolution!

Take Ka Ella and Ka Pabling's place and carry forward the people's war!

Join the New People's Army!

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the National Operational Command of the New People's Army (NPA) pay the highest tribute and give the firmest Red salute to Ka Oris (Comrade Jorge Madlos), erstwhile spokesperson of the NPA. Ka Oris, together with his medical aide, Ka Pika, were murdered in cold-blood on October 29, 2021 as they were en route for his regular health checkup and to seek medical treatment. Ka Oris was 74 years old.

The entire Party, all revolutionary forces and friends of the revolutionary movement are deeply saddened by the death of Ka Oris. The Party, the New People's Army and the entire revolutionary movement lost an important cadre and leader. But the enemy has nothing to celebrate with his murder. Long before he was killed, Ka Oris had already inspired, trained and developed thousands of successors. His martyrdom further inspires the current generation and further generations to continue the people's democratic revolution through protracted people's war.

The Central Committee extends its deepest sympathies to Ka Maria Malaya, wife of Ka Oris, their children, as well as to his and Ka Pika's family and friends. The Filipino people are deeply saddened by their deaths. The broad masses, especially the countless peasants and Lumad people whom Ka Oris personally encountered in more than five decades of revolutionary service, feel a deep sense of loss with Ka Oris' death, but at the same time, are enraged over how he was killed by the cowardly and dishonorable fascists.

We condemn in the strongest terms the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), particularly the 4th Infantry Division, for carrying out the murder of Ka Oris and Ka Pika and the subsequent lies propagated by military officers to cover up their crime. Ka Oris and his aide were aboard a motorcycle and traversing the road from the center of Impasug-ong town in Bukidnon province going to the national highway when they were ambushed by soldiers belonging to the 403rd Infantry Brigade.

The AFP could easily have arrested them as both were unarmed and were in no position to give battle. Instead, the fascists finished them off with bullets in a shameless demonstration of their cowardice. There is absolutely no honor in murdering a defenseless enemy. The claim that Ka Oris was killed in an armed encounter with an NPA unit is a gargantuan lie propped up by a multimillion aerial bombardment in a nearby mountain staged to create the impression of an intense battle.

We are aware that the plot to kill Ka Oris was personally directed by the tyrant himself. Without a doubt, the final order to kill Ka Oris was issued by none other than Rodrigo Duterte. Duterte is obsessed with murdering the leaders of the Party and the NPA on the mistaken belief that he could end the revolution by killing its leaders. On the contrary, Ka Oris' blood will further nourish the ground from which patriots, democrats and revolutionaries sprout and take root.

Ka Oris died a hero's death, murdered by the fascists while fighting for the cause of national and social liberation. To his last breath, Ka Oris was a true communist cadre and fighter. For more than five decades, he devoted his life wholly and unwaveringly to the cause of all the oppressed and exploited people to free them from the yoke of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism.

As a young student activist in the early 1970s, he was driven by the cause of democracy and social action, working to uplift the people from poverty and hunger. He helped organize his fellow students in the Central Mindanao University Musuan Campus in Maramag, Bukidnon. He was on his fifth year as a student of agricultural engineering when martial law was declared in 1972 which crystallized his decision to join the armed revolution.

He joined the New People's Army as a young man and belonged to one of the first squads of Red fighters who broke ground in Mindanao, particularly in Northern Mindanao. He played an important role in the growth of the NPA through the 1970s and 1980s. From a few squads, the NPA grew to several companies as they carried out mass work, military work and waging antifeudal struggles. The NPA fought for the interests of the peasant masses and Lumad people (ethnic minorities) and defended themselves against the armed agents of the state and big capitalist logging and mining companies and plantations which grabbed farms and ancestral land.

Ka Oris put into practice the Party's line of people's democratic revolution through protracted people's war and saw for himself its correctness. The Party and NPA took deep and wide roots in the countryside. Myriad forms of revolutionary mass organizations sprouted and served as foundation for establishing organs of political power which governed and administered the economic, political, educational, cultural and military affairs at the village level and up. Despite the threats of fascist repression, thousands upon thousands joined the Party to help lead the people's war.

Ka Oris was captured in 1987 after the collapse of peace talks with the Corazon Aquino government. He was imprisoned for five years. During this time, the NPA in Mindanao saw the height of errors of premature regularization and insurrectionism during which Red fighters of the NPA were overly concentrated in battalions disproportionate to its horizontal spread and to the detriment of sustaining and expanding the mass base. Ultimately, mass support contracted and proved insufficient for sustaining the military victories during the latter part of the 1980s until 1990.

Ka Oris served as one of the strongest pillars of the Second Great Rectification Movement which the Central Committee declared in 1992 to reaffirm the Party's basic Marxist-Leninist-Maoist ideological principles and its strategic line of people's democratic revolution through protracted people's war. He stood firm against the revisionists and "Left" opportunists among whom were former cadres in the Mindanao Commission who eventually turned traitors to the revolutionary cause. He would always say that it was not the enemy which almost decimated the NPA in Mindanao in the 1980s and early 1990s, but the NPA's own weaknesses and bad decisions.

Over the course of the past two decades, Ka Oris and other comrades led the Party, NPA and revolutionary forces in Northeast Mindanao region. The people's war would rage across the five regions in Mindanao island as the NPA carried out the line of intensive and extensive guerrilla warfare on the basis of an ever widening and deepening mass base.

In 2015, he was appointed to serve as one of the leading commanders of the National Operational Command of the NPA in recognition of the advanced experience of waging people's war in the island. In 2016, Ka Oris played an important role in bringing together around one hundred cadres from all regional Party committees across the Philippines to convene the historic 2nd Congress of the CPP. During the congress, Ka Oris was elected as a member of the Central Committee, the Political Bureau and the Executive Committee, and was tasked to be among the leading cadres in the Military Commission and the Mindanao Commission. He was also assigned as a consultant of the NDFP in peace negotiations.

As a Party leader, Ka Oris studied and firmly applied Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. He would spend time reading and rereading classic military writings especially those of such great communist leaders as Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap. He meticulously studied the history and successful experiences of waging people's war in semicolonial and semifeudal countries. He was always inspired by the epic struggles of the oppressed and exploited classes throughout history.

He devoted time and effort to training the young cadres and Red fighters in the art and science of guerrilla warfare. He wrote manuals and training courses for officers and men of the NPA enriched by the past and new experiences in waging guerrilla warfare. He made it a point to gather Party cadres in big and small meetings, consultations and conferences where he intently listened, discussed and debated with comrades. He trekked long distances from one guerrilla front to another, to observe first hand the work of Party committees and NPA units. Over the past years, he took risks to go around the archipelago to inspire and impart his knowledge of waging people's war. He always said that to be able to gather cadres and assess their revolutionary work amid intense military operations is a feat in itself.

Ka Oris was a staunch defender of the environment. One of the first demonstrations he organized as an activist was a protest action against a logging company. For several decades, he led units of the NPA who fought against big bourgeois comprador companies which ravaged the environment. He took it a point to issue a statement every year during Earth Day especially amid the worsening environmental crisis brought about by capitalist anarchy in production and its destructive effect and impact on global ecology. He defended the NPA's actions to render useless the machines and tools with which logging and mining companies exploit and destroy the land and the people.

Ka Oris had always played a publicly prominent role. He was assigned as one of the representatives of the National Democratic Front (NDF)-Mindanao in peace negotiations with the Corazon Aquino government in 1986-1987. He served as spokesperson of the NDFP-Mindanao and later of the New People's Army. He took the name "Oris" from his uncle and foster father, Mauricio Ravelo, who raised him since he was 3 years old. He recalled that his first interview as Ka Oris was by a Bombo Radyo reporter in 1978.

Having served as spokesperson, Ka Oris had numerous encounters with journalists. He made a lot of friends among reporters and writers not only because he gave interviews whenever possible, but more so because he was always cordial to journalists, even to those who made known their animosity to the revolutionary cause. He ardently supported the struggle for press freedom. Through his efforts, not a few journalists saw how different the revolutionary movement was from the image of "terrorists" persistently being painted by the real terrorists—the fascist reactionaries. He engaged journalists in discussions with the aim of reaching out to the public and clarifying the views of the revolutionary movement. Reporters who had the opportunity to join the press conferences organized by Ka Oris would attest to both his charisma and humility.

Indeed, despite his public and organizational stature, Ka Oris remained a humble revolutionary who shunned the easy life and chose the difficult and arduous life of a Party cadre and guerrilla fighter. He was able to manage his condition of having a permanently damaged urinary bladder (which resulted from an untreated infection in prison) by maintaining a meticulously clean and spartan lifestyle. He laughed at repeated claims of the military that he was sick and ailing. He remained generally healthy and able to march for days on end even recently. Young Red fighters and revolutionaries are always inspired by Ka Oris, who despite his medical condition and advanced age, continued to take the difficult road of people's war.

Ka Oris was a quintessential family man, deeply devoted to his wife, Ka Maria Malaya, and their two children. As with many revolutionaries, they endured long stretches of separation. He had the highest respect for Ka Maria, who is a leading Party cadre herself.

He treated comrades with warm affection, especially the younger ones. He had boundless love and concern for comrades and the masses. He made it a point to ensure that everyone is well taken care of. He had a wry sense of humor making him easy to be with. Ka Oris was a comrade beloved by Red fighters, by the peasant masses, Lumads, and workers, as well as by various sectors in the cities. To many, he was a loving fatherly figure who was concerned with the comrades' big and small concerns.

The love of the broad masses of workers and peasants for Ka Oris is matched only by the hatred of big landlords, the big bourgeois compradors, the mining companies, plantations, the bureaucrat capitalists, tyrants and dictators, and the fascist terrorists who perpetuate the oppressive and exploitative system. They have used all their wealth and resources to demonize and blacken the image of Ka Oris. The cowardly and dishonorable fascists are beyond themselves in celebrating their murder of Ka Oris. They are only fooling themselves in thinking that killing Ka Oris will put an end to the revolution. As Ka Oris himself said, the revolution will continue because it is just.

By taking away his life, the fascists have succeeded only in immortalizing Ka Oris. He now lives forever in the hearts and minds of the Filipino people as one of their heroes and icons. His indomitable spirit of revolutionary resistance continues to imbue the new generation of Party cadres and young Red fighters. It will serve to inspire future generations who will carry on the fight for genuine national freedom and social liberation, land for the landless and national industrialization, and for the emancipation of people from all forms of oppression and exploitation.

Long live the memory of Ka Oris!

Bear high the torch of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!

Advance the cause of the people's democratic revolution!

Carry forward the people's war until complete victory!

Long live the New People's Army!

Long live the Communist Party of the Philippines!

Long live the Filipino people!

Ode to Ka Parts

Beloved Artist of the People
Slain by Government Troops in Polomolok, South Cotabato,
on the 16th of August 2021
With only pen and ink to defend himself

We never knew a man so deeply faithful
to his art
as he was to the revolution.
From his hands things came alive
As he captured them on paper, on sand, on petals,
On our very skin — an honest record of the
moveable life we live and
of our boundless responsibilities.
You sketched us — imperfect and perfect
And we came to see things as they were,
Or as they could be — rifles, nipa huts, seedlings,
Feet steeled in the long walk,
Warriors and comrades,
The warm smile of peasants,
Eyes that glint with love and hope,
All things still and moving and
The inexhaustible image of this —
This great guerilla war so we could
Erase all wars and build
The latent goodness and
Compassion of this world.

We never knew a man so intensely faithful
to the revolution,
as he was to his art.
And there he was, seated on a stone,
Or patiently poised in an attack
Against the marauders of the land
Translating action into paper —
Sketching the world as he understood it
Never stopping, never flinching.
And from his art we learned the texture of things,
The intertwining roots of the mountains,
The narratives of our commitment.
It was the most beautiful painting yet,
The anatomy of this great undertaking —
Perfect cadence of warriors and peasants
in a communion of dreams.

Parts, dearest Parts —
Beloved artist and devoted son of the People's War,
The enemy's bullet can never erase you
It cannot delete the vision you've lived for
So dearly etched in our lives
Framed in our hearts, and
In the veins and arteries of our struggle.

You live, you will always live, Ka Parts.

With all the love and respect,
Ka Joven Obrero