Correspondence Reports:
Valiant Red commanders

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

Ka Bob and Ka Berto � heroes of the national minorities and the Filipino people

In a salute to all Red commanders and fighters of the New People's Army, Ang Bayan publishes the following tributes to two martyred commanders who gave their all to serve the revolution and the people. Aside from their exemplary records of struggle, Ismaelito "Ka Bob" Giganto and Ado "Ka Berto" are brilliant examples of the decisiveness and success of national minorities to actively participate in national revolutionary change.

Ka Bob died while fighting enemy troops in Tapaz, Capiz on February 24. Ka Berto died in January while performing revolutionary tasks.

Ka Bob (Based on a tribute by the CPP Regional Committee in Panay)

Ka Bob was a Tumanduk, a national minority group concentrated in the central part of Panay.

Ka Bob's family was among those displaced when Tapaz and Jamindan in Capiz were used as sites for military exercises in 1962. Their lands in Tapaz were also grabbed by big landlords and converted to pasturelands.

Ka Bob's family was one of the most enthusiastic in the struggle when the NPA came to their area and organized the Tumanduk tribe in 1972. With his father Mal-am Benig, a respected Tumanduk leader, their family convinced other village leaders to support the NPA. They waged a successful mass campaign against the tumado, a form of land rent implemented by the Philippine Army. Before joining the NPA, Ka Bob was an activist struggling for genuine land reform against big landlords.

Despite his having joined the people's army during the 1980s, a time when deviations were prevalent, he remained firm in his revolutionary stand. After a number of years, he was appointed Red commander of the main guerrilla unit operating in Tapaz, Jamindan and Calinog in Capiz. Under his leadership, his unit successfully overcame the fierceness of the all-out war and gradual constriction scheme launched by the US-Ramos regime by maintaining good relations with the masses.

Ka Bob was also a fine Party cadre. He was one of the first minorities in Panay who became members of the Party Regional Committee. He indefatigably explained to the Tumanduk tribespeople in the locality as well as the people's army, the importance of Marxist-Leninist principles and the comprehensive advance of the revolution. He was a great help in recovering areas formerly covered by the NPA.

Ka Bob also played a major role in mediating conflicts among warring clans and villages. He patiently taught others how to set up mass organizations, about the democratization of leadership as well as the exercise of collective leadership in a way that would not trample on the Tumanduk system of justice and the tribe's traditional leaders.

Ka Bob reflected the higher level of struggle reached by the Tumanduk tribe. He was not only a courageous Tumanduk fighter or a wise and respected leader of his tribe. He was a genuine proletarian revolutionary leader.

Ka Berto (Excerpted from a tribute on February 9 by his unit's higher organ)

Ado was Ka Berto's real name. Like many others from the Aggay tribe (a minority group in the Sierra Madre side of Northern Luzon), he had no surname. He came in contact with and joined the people's army in Isabela, when the NPA had just been formed, more than 30 years ago. He was one of the first minorities to have had links with the NPA and he was likewise one of the NPA commanders and fighters � minority or otherwise � who served the people's army the longest.

In the more than 30 years before his death, the Party and the revolutionary movement were his sole family, his only life. His wife died during a big and sensitive mission, when t hey had but served the people's army for a brief period. His only child also died as a member of the movement. He was able to visit his brother only recently after many years.

Even before he joined the people's army, Comrade Berto was looked up to by the people living in a wide area of the Sierra Madre. His tribe was renowned for its bravery; but more important, Comrade Berto was an exceptionally skilled hunter, and an expert when it came to the jungle. He had a remarkable native intelligence and was outstanding in his capacity to understand, his kindness and his ability to relate to others (minorities and non-minorities alike).

Comrade Berto's first involvement in the people's army was with an armed propaganda unit and a guerrilla unit. For the past 20 years, he was a member of a support unit. He joined many victorious and fierce battles. As the commander of his unit, he led it in confronting and resisting many large enemy campaigns and operations. His skills as an excellent sniper have been proven in battle. He was also known as a good NPA trainor.

In his unit, Comrade Berto also usually pacified comrades who were impatient, impulsive or were having disagreements. During times of stress and difficulty, he usually lightened things up with his jokes, pleasant commentaries and funny stories.

Because he had full confidence in his own abilities and was unstinting in his relations with comrades in the Party and the people's army, Comrade Berto never had problems while interacting with comrades and the masses who were nonminorities. He treated them all equally, no matter what their skin color or religion. With humor, he liked recounting his experience with a well-to-do peasant who was at a loss on how to deal with him upon being told that he, the Aeta, was the commander of the NPA unit.

Like many other martyrs of the revolution, Comrade Berto was buried in the forest where he died, far from the place of his birth. Comrade Mao Zedong once said, "It does not matter if a hero is buried where he dies. What is important is that he lived and died in true service to the revolution and the people." Thus was Comrade Berto, a valiant hero of the people and the Philipppine revolution. AB

22 March 2003
English Edition

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