Ma. Socorro Baronia Par

Ma. Socorro Baronia Par, or "Soc," was posthumously given the Gawad ni Lorena award by the Makibaka in its third national congress in November 1991. The award honors women revolutionaries who play exemplary roles in the revolution.

She was barely thirty-two when she died on April 23, 1985. But Ma. Socorro "Soc" Baronia Par's contributions to the revolutionary movement spoke well beyond her age.

Soc, who was born in Kalamansig, Sultan Kudarat on May 21, 1953 started her involvement in the revolution during her high school days. As a member of the Khi Rho, a peasant-support organization, she organized her fellow students around peasant issues. The youngest of thirteen children born to peasant parents, she was well aware of the problems and issues of peasants.

When martial law was declared, Soc, along with others in the organization, went to the hills and became a fulltime revolutionary. She remained there for six years. She married Emerito "Pikong" Rodriguez, also a member of the Khi Rho, who went underground. After two years of marriage, and at the age of 20, Soc became a widow. Pikong was killed in an encounter, leaving her with a son.

In November 1976, Soc was arrested in Nabunturam, Davao del Norte. Military soldiers raided the house where Soc and her comrades were resting. An exchange of gunfire ensued. Outnumbered, the group tried to escape. Soc buried herself in a mud pool to conceal herself but the military found her out. Accused of subversion, illegal possession of firearms and inciting to rebellion, she was detained at the PC barracks in Tagum, Davao del Norte. In detention, she earned praises from both inmates and military for her exemplary behavior.

Back to the underground

After her release, she went back to school and was able to graduate in 1979 with a degree in economics. Her studies, however, did not prevent her from pursuing her commitment to the movement.

From 1977 to 1979, Soc was involved in the youth sector as a member of the YS (youth and students') committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines in Davao City under the Mindanao white-area (or urban) committee.

During her time, the tasks of the YS committee focused on revitalizing the student movement particularly the reconstitution of the student council. The student movement was curtailed and silenced during martial law.

Being a member of the YS committee was no easy task for Soc. But her comrades remembered her as a patient, diligent YS cadre who was able to maintain a balance between the much younger and "less serious" committee members and the other much older ones who tend to be more impatient with the younger ones.

After her graduation, she was ripe for more difficult yet more challenging tasks within the movement. She was immediately assigned in North Cotabato as a white-area cadre, and stayed within the area until 1982. She became a deputy district secretary at the same time assuming the post of a member of the provincial committee. This body oversaw the whole revolutionary movement within the province.

Badly scarred

It was during this time when she was nearly killed in an accident, which left her body badly scarred. A comrade was dismantling a hand grenade when it accidentally went off and exploded, hitting Soc and othe comrades in the blast, and killing two more, among them the comrade who was dismantling the grenade.

In 1988, just when she was already fully recovered from her injuries, she was again captured by the military in Kidapawan, North Cotabato. She was detained for two weeks without the military knowing her identity. It was only two days after her release that the military knew she had a P100,001 price on her head.

After her release and until 1983, she was assigned in South Cotabato and headed the provincial white-area committee. One of the tasks of the committee was to help lay down the ground work for the partisan mass movement. It was here that she met and married her second husband who was a partisan cadre.

From 1984 until her death the following year, Soc, together with her husband, were assigned to Northern Mindanao to head the regional white-area committee. At the same time she was also assigned as a member of the executive committee of the regional party committee, the body overseeing revolutionary work in the whole region.

There was a time during this period when she was almost captured along with her husband. Fortunately, quick thinking and presence of mind enabled them to elude their captors.

She and her husband were then returning from a conference held outside the region. They were on board a ship and were about to disembark when a commotion happened. They saw two of their companions being nabbed by plain clothesmen at the gang-plank. They waited for the commotion to die down before they got off the boat and still maintained their composure. One of their companions collared by the military earlier also eluded arrest.

Motherhood pains

It was also around this time, with her second child coming, that Soc experienced a painful struggle within herself. She was torn between her love for her daughter, her desire to be with her as she grows up, and her commitment to the revolutionary movement.

She took a maternity leave and breastfed her child for three months from November 1984 to January 1985. Then she went back to Northern Mindanao to resume her task, though pained by the separation from her daughter.

By April, she went to visit her child and was again faced with her internal crisis. But even as she wanted to stay with her daughter, she felt she could not do so at the expense of giving up her commitment.

Thus, after a few weeks' visit, she went back to the area on April 20, 1985. She immediately proceeded to Jasaan, Misamis Oriental, to attend a meeting together with her husband. It was already April 23. A composite team of military men, however, raided their house. Caught unaware, Soc and another comrade were fatally hit while her husband and another companion, though also hurt, escaped.

The military buried her and another comrade in a five feet hole in the ground within the area.

On April 23, Socorro's family learned about her death. They recovered her remains and brought her to Davao City where she was decently buried.

Socorro may have died at a relatively young age. But like others before her, Soc's courage in selflessly serving the people and the revolution is forever imprinted in the memories of her comrades and the masses she served. Her work, in fact, had given courage and challenge to women in pursuing their revolutionary commitment for the people and for themselves as women.

From: 1992 issue of Malayang Pilipina, official magazine of MAKIBAKA (Makabayang Kilusan ng Bagong Kababaihan, the national democratic organization of women allied with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines)

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