Ang bugtong nimong kasal-anan kay ikaw mibarog!
Ug sa anak mong rebolusyonaryo nga nabantog
Apan! Ang mga sakripisyo dili nato igsapayan
kay kining tanan para man sa rebolusyonaryong kadaugan

Your only sin was to stand firm
and for having a known revolutionary son,
Take heart!
Your sacrifices will not be wasted
For these are all for the victory of the revolution

– from “Amahan sa Hukbo sa Katawhan” (A Father to the People’s Army)
by Ka Edroy as a tribute to his Tatay Bodoy Leyson

Ka Edroy, a prominent leader of the New People’s Army in Surigao del Norte, paid tribute to his father Tatay Bodoy, who was murdered by state forces last September 11. In his poem, Ka Edroy vowed that the sacrifices of his father will not be wasted. He recalled how his father’s proletarian teachings moulded his own social views and his quest for a society where there is no exploitation and oppression.

Tatay Bodoy was 78-year-old Rolando Patiño Leyson, Sr. He was murdered last September 11 at his home in Km. 20, San Pedro, Sison, Surigao del Norte. He was sleeping beside his grandson when five bonnet-wearing armed men barged into his house and executed him at around 11:30 in the evening.
The killers were seen boarding a black Toyota Fortuner SUV and going towards Butuan City, at a time when only the police and military are able to drive around checkpoint-riddled streets.

Ka Maria Malaya, spokesperson of the National Democratic Front (NDF) in Northeast Mindanao Region (NEMR), pointed to the regime’s military and police as the culprits who are “heartless mercenaries, who murder even defenseless children and elderly.” Marco Valbuena, Communist Party of the Philippines Chief Information Officer, called Leyson’s murder a gross violation of international rules of war and of universally accepted norms of a civilized conflict.

Before the brutal murder of Tatay Bodoy, Jojie Udtohan Gayoso, a motorcycle driver who worked for and was trusted by Tatay Bodoy was shot dead by armed men in his home in Km. 19 in the same barangay.

“We believe that the killing of Gayoso and Leyson were related to the death of PSSgt. Restie Dandan, intelligence officer of the PNP, who was involved in illegal drug operation, illegal logging and gambling in Sison. The mayor in Sison, a close ally of Dandan, threatened to massacre the families of Ka Edroy and NPA supporters,”said Ka Sandara Sidlakan, spokesperson of the NPA-NEMR.

The NDFP and NPA in NEMR also slammed the continuing harassment by the military and police of Leyson’s family and of those known Red fighters and commanders.

Valbuena denounced these criminal acts of the Duterte regime and the NTF-ELCAC. He added that, for failing to defeat the NPA in the battlefield, military and police forces of the regime have resorted to targetting civilians, maliciously tagging them as members and supporters of the NPA. He called on the Filipino people to rise up and end Duterte’s reign of fascism, corruption and national treachery.

“The revolutionary movement will continue to seek justice for all the victims of human rights violations,” Sidlakan concluded.