Founding Chairman, Communist Party of the
Philippines
Chief Political Consultant, National Democratic Front of
the Philippines
June 29, 2015
I join the
Filipino people, the people’s revolutionary government, the Communist Party of
the Philippines, the New People’s Army, the National Democratic Front of the
Philippines, the revolutionary mass organizations and other revolutionary forces
in mourning the death of Comrade Leoncio Pitao (Commander Parago) and in
celebrating his achievements from the time he joined the NPA in 1978 until his
martyrdom yesterday on June 28, 2015.
It is
fitting and proper that all of us accord him with the Red salute and the highest
respect and honor for serving the Filipino people and the international
proletariat. He is a great patriot, outstanding communist fighter and
revolutionary commander. He has made significant contributions and the supreme
sacrifice in the Filipino people’s democratic revolution for national and social
liberation against foreign monopoly capitalism, feudalism and bureaucrat
capitalism.
Comrade
Leoncio Pitao (Ka Parago) was devoted to the theory and practice of
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and applied it successfully together with other comrades
and the people in Southern Mindanao Region. He excelled as a cadre of the
Communist Party of the Philippines and as a commander of the New People’s Army.
He adhered to the Second Great Rectification Movement and carried forward the
building of the Party, the people’s army and the united front.
In
advancing the people’s war, he integrated revolutionary struggle with land
reform and building the organs of political power and mass organization. He
applied the line of extensive and intensive guerrilla warfare on the basis of a
widening and deepening mass base. He developed the closest of relations with the
working people, the indigenous people and allies.
He had a
mastery of the strategy and tactics of guerrilla warfare, flexibly employing
concentration, dispersal and shifting, depending on the need in a fluid war of
movement. He became known nationally and internationally for the revolutionary
victories as commander of the First Pulang Bagani Company in the Southern
Mindanao Region.
As a
result of correct political line and his effective tactical command, this heroic
and glorious company has grown into the First Pulang Bagani Battalion. According
to the Southern Mindanao Regional Command, Ka Parago planned and commanded the
countless disarming operations in the 1980s and 1990s, the capture of General
Obillo and Capt. Montealto in 1999, the raid on the Davao Penal Colony and other
many tactical offensives.
Ka Parago
was captured in November 1999 and was put in solitary confinement in the ISAFP
headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo. He was offered by the enemy a huge amount of
money as bribe for him to leave and denounce the revolutionary movement. But he
outrightly refused the offer and upheld his loyalty and commitment to the
Filipino people and the revolution.
The
lawyers of the Public Interest Law Center and the Department of Justice pleaded
to the court for his release as a goodwill measure of the Government of the
Republic of the Philippines (GRP) in the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations. It was
during this time that the Chairperson of the NDFP Negotiating Panel Luis
Jalandoni and panel member Coni Ledesma were able to visit him and hold a press
conference with him. Ka Parago was released from prison in 2001.
After his
release, Ka Parago decided to rejoin the comrades in the countryside. And he
continued to render outstanding service to the revolutionary cause of the
Filipino people, especially in the battlefield. The enemy hated him so much that
military agents abducted, tortured, raped and murdered his 22-year old daughter
Rebelyn, a school teacher, and dumped her in a ditch in Panabo City in 2009.
This barbarity became the subject of outrage among the people and human rights
organizations in the Philippines and abroad.
Despite
the abduction, torture, rape and murder of his daughter, he continued as a
principled revolutionary to respect the policy of the CPP and NPA for according
lenient treatment to prisoners of war as well as the International Humanitarian
Law regarding respect for the human rights of the said prisoners. Exercising
political wisdom, he went so far as issuing a statement to assure the families
of enemy officers and men that there would be no retaliation on them. As a
matter of justice under the people’s government, he sought out for punishment
only those identified as the abductors and killers of his daughter.
So
successful were the tactical offensives commanded by Ka Parago that prisoners
were often captured. He and the Red fighters under his command used the
necessary amount of force to achieve victory. But they were lenient and kind to
the enemy officers and men who surrendered or survived the battle. The bodies of
the dead were respected. The wounded were treated by NPA medical officers. The
prisoners received the same food as the NPA fighters. They were released as soon
as possible, as long as they were not liable for any serious criminal
offense.
For an
extended period already, Ka Parago had been ill with diabetes, hyperthyroidism,
hepatitis and hypertension. He was under medical treatment at the time of his
death. The comrades had advised him to take a leave for medical treatment
outside his area of command but he insisted on staying close to the people.
Investigation by the revolutionary authorities has established that on June 28,
2015 at 2:30 p.m., an enemy team raided Purok 9 of barangay Pañalum in the
Paquibato district of Davao City, where Ka Parago was undergoing medical care,
and that there was no encounter between units of the NPA and the enemy.
The enemy
immediately raked Ka Parago with automatic fire upon sight of him. His unarmed
medical aide Ka Kyle or Vanessa Limpag had the chance to raise her hands and
shout that she was a medic. But she was mowed down by the enemy raiding team.
The enemy has withdrawn the photo and video it previously published, showing the
murdered Ka Parago in his homewear and barefooted, with two obviously planted
Armalite rifles for photo takingclose to his and Ka Vanessa’s bodies .
The enemy
in its propaganda is gloating over their brutal killing of Ka Parago and his
medical aide. It is boasting that the revolutionary movement is “declining”. It
is oblivious of the fact that before Ka Parago died he was able to educate and
train so many revolutionary successors in 37 years of revolutionary struggle. In
recent years, months and days, the reactionary armed forces and unwelcome
foreign monopoly enterprises have been receiving lethal blows from the NPA in
the Southern Mindanao region.
Ka Parago
continues to live and fight for national liberation and democracy through his
successors in the CPP, NPA and the mass movement. After his heroic martyrdom,
his successors are inspired and are ever more determined to fight for a new and
better world.
The
reactionary armed forces have concentrated more than 50 per cent of their
strength in Eastern Mindanao in the vain hope of defeating the NPA here since
sometime ago. But within this area, the NPA has enough room for maneuver. The
forces of the NPA are also taking advantage of the reduced strength of the
reactionary armed forces in other parts of Mindanao and in the Visayas and Luzon
in order to wage tactical offensives. These are not being reportedly fully by
the bourgeois mass media.
There is
no way for the imperialists and the local reactionaries to stop the growth of
the CPP, NPA, the mass organizations and organs of political powers, because the
crisis of the world capitalist system and the domestic ruling system of big
compradors and landlords is ever worsening and the broad masses of the people
detest the intolerable conditions of oppression and exploitation and are
desirous of revolutionary change in the face of the ever worsening conditions of
exploitation and oppression.
Long live
the memory of Comrade Leoncio Pitao!
Advance the revolutionary cause which he
fought and died for!
Long live the revolutionary struggle in Mindanao,
Visayas and Luzon!
Carry forward the Philippine revolution!
Long live the
Filipino people!
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