Aboard motorcycles, tricycles, vans, and sugarcane trucks, hundreds of Negrosanons joined the motorcade to the bring the bodies of the two martyred Red commanders of the New People’s Army (NPA)-Northern Negros (Roselyn Jean Pelle Command), Roger Fabillar (Ka Jhong) and Rene Villarin Sr (Ka During)to their resting place. They defied the surveillance and presence of Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) troops in the area and paid tribute to their heroes.

The two Red fighters belonged to a small people’s army squad that were martyred in a heroic battle against the 79th IB in Barangay Salamanca, Toboso, Calatrava on April 19. The NPA unit was among the military’s 19 massacre victims that included civilians and non-combatants in the area.

Fabillar was buried in his hometown of Toboso on April 23. He commanded the NPA-Northern Negros. The participation of hundreds of relatives, friends, supporters, and peasant masses in the town proved the community recognized and respected him as a Red commander.

Local journalists reported that attendees in the final procession discussed social conditions and justice for their fellow poor. This showed the masses’ deep understanding of the armed struggle and revolution advanced by Fabillar.

Over 500 people escorted Villarin to his gravesite in Calatrava town on April 25. Villarin was NPA-Northern Negros squad leader and a people’s army’s medical committee member. He also served the guerrilla zone Party Committee.

Villarin’s children took great pride in their father’s courage and resolve. “All I can say in fact is I salute my father because he fought until his very last breath. That’s true courage!” one of his children said.

He added that they never heard weakness in their father’s resolve to advance the revolution and advance the armed struggle. One of his children said, “Papa’s death is not an end but a new beginning for those just emerging to fight and continue what our true heroes started.”

The NPA-Negros Island (Apolinario Gatmaitan Command) and the Communist Party of the Philippines honored them and other Red fighters who fell martyrs in Toboso.

“Their names are now engraved in the long history of struggle for land and justice on the island,” regional command spokesperson Ka Maoche Legislador said. He added that the Negros masses will remember them as patriots and revolutionaries who empathized with the suffering of the poor and chose to defend the peasants until their deaths.

“The blood of the brave nurtures Negros land from which the revolution will only grow stronger,” Legislador added. While the military sees only the number of those they killed, Negros masses view it as reason to continue fighting.

Communist Party of the Philippines information officer Ka Marco Valbuena called on the entire revolutionary movement and Filipino masses to remember and honor the felled Toboso fighters. “We turn the people’s grief to even greater revolutionary determination to carry forward the people’s war,” he said.

Valbuena added that people’s fighters fall but the people’s war continues. “The ground nurtured by the blood of the people’s heroes will spring forth even more leaders of mass organizations, Red fighters of the New People’s Army, and Party cadres,” he declared.