A Red salute to Silvino �Ka Bino� Clamucha
In the afternoon of March 5, Comrade Silvino �Ka Bino� Clamucha, 51, spokesperson of the Arnulfo Ortiz Regional Command of the NPA-Central Visayas was killed. Martyred with him was fellow Red fighter Ka Kardo. They died in a firefight between guerrillas of the Chocolate Hills Command and elements of the Philippine Army 302nd Infantry Brigade in Barangay Liboron, Catigbian, Bohol.
Two decades of brilliant struggle. For almost two decades, Ka Bino devoted his talents and courage to serving the Filipino people.
Coming from a lower petty bourgeois family, he was born in Barangay Del Carmen Norte, Balilihan, Bohol and raised to be loving and helpful to others.
He was first exposed to progressive ideas when he became involved in anti-dictatorship activities by the then anti-Marcos PDP-Laban party in Davao del Norte in 1982. In 1984, he was recruited into the underground movement and became a full-time activist in the legal democratic movement. He joined the Communist Party of the Philippines in 1988.
As a cadre, he was assigned to arouse, organize and mobilize stevedores, vendors and drivers in Tagbilaran City and its environs. He was among those who played a big role in the successful dockworkers� strikes at that time. He also helped in gaining support from the middle forces for the struggles of the basic masses. He helped organize peasants in Balilihan along with launching protest actions against pro-Marcos politicians in their locality. When EDSA I took place in 1986, Ka Bino led a protest rally of hundreds of Balilihan residents against the mayor appointed by the new Aquino government.
When he became a member of the Bohol Party Committee, he was assigned in 1990 to the countryside to perform tasks and assume responsibilities as secretary of various Party sections.
He played a big role in the all-sided resurgence of the revolutionary movement in the region with the beginning of the Second Great Rectification Movement.
He was sent in the latter part of 1992 to the guerrilla front in north-central Cebu to propagate the rectification movement. In mid-1995, he became a delegate to the Second Regional Party Conference and was elected a regular member of the Regional Committee. He was immediately assigned to lead revolutionary work in the urban areas of Cebu.
Accomplishing two key tasks.
During this period, Ka Bino was able to accomplish the two key tasks for the all-sided advance of revolutionary work in the region. First, he united all Party organs in the urban areas on what the role of the revolutionary forces in cities and towns and in the whole of Central Visayas should be. Second, he ensured the deployment of a relatively sizeable number of cadres and mass activists to the countryside, especially those from the educated youth and the middle forces.
In 1998, Ka Bino was elected to the Executive Committee as deputy secretary of the Central Visayas Regional Party Committee (CenVis RPC). He was also designated as spokesperson of the Arnulfo Ortiz Regional Operational Command of the NPA.
The four guerrilla fronts in Bohol and Cebu achieved dramatic advances in this period.
Ka Bino played a big role in planning and executing the daring and now famous attack on the 7th Regional Mobile Group-Combat Support Company headquarters in Barangay Rizal, Batuan on June 11, 1999. By applying a ruse, the NPA was able to seize 60 high-powered rifles, a 60-mm mortar, an M60 light machine gun, more than 30 short arms and other military equipment. The raid holds the national record of having yielded the second biggest number of firearms in a single military action since the Second Great Rectification Movement.
In early 2000, Ka Bino headed the Chocolate Hills Command and personally supervised the planning and execution of another victorious tactical offensive. On March 2, after falling for a ruse, six Special Forces and four CAFGU elements were killed in an ambush in Barangay Sta. Catalina, Sagbayan. In 2001, Ka Bino oversaw all guerrilla fronts in the island, first as head of the Bohol Area Command Conference and later, as head of the Bohol Island Conference.
Ka Bino was among those who successfully thwarted the counterrevolutionary campaign launched by the AFP�s Task Group Bohol from September 1999 to May 2000 and by the 301st Brigade from June 2000 to March 2001.
Sustained development.
Under Ka Bino�s leadership, the revolutionary mass base continued to develop in Bohol. More than half of all barrios on the island are covered by various guerrilla fronts. In these barrios, organs of political power are built alongside organizations of peasants, women and youth as well as support groups.
To advance the antifeudal struggle and alleviate poverty in the countryside, Ka Bino and his comrades led the implementation of the minimum program of agrarian revolution.
Aside from reducing land rent and usury, raising farm workers� wages and prices of agricultural products and promoting projects to supplement incomes, health and sanitation programs are advanced as well as mass campaigns against antipeasant presidential proclamations, palm plantations and the so-called mega projects and poverty alleviation programs funded by imperialists.
Salute!
The CenVis RPC also helped develop armed struggle in nearby islands. Ka Bino led the planning and execution of a victorious tactical offensive in Mahaplag, Leyte on September 20, 2002. Six Scout Ranger troops were killed in this firefight.
Some months before he was killed, Ka Bino led the establishment of another guerrilla front in Central Visayas.
�He is truly one of the finest products of this generation,� hailed the CenVis RPC, the Arnulfo Ortiz Regional Operational Command and the entire revolutionary movement in the Visayas and the archipelago.
The Filipino people salute him!
| 
