Kabataang Makabayan–Demokratiko a Tignayan iti Agtutubo ti Kordilyera (KM-DATAKO) launched a political conference led by Balangay “Ka Trina” this March. The conference marked the group’s celebration of the 57th anniversary of the New People’s Army (NPA) on March 29.

The group reported that more than 80 members of KM-DATAKO attended the conference, coming from different chapters across the region. KM-DATAKO is the revolutionary organization of youth and students in the Cordillera region. The group is part of the broader revolutionary alliance, the Cordillera People’s Democratic Front.

In the conference, KM-DATAKO reviewed the important document “The Particular Characteristics of Our People’s War” and the special role of Northern Luzon in advancing the people’s protracted war. Participants collectively read and discussed the statement of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) for the NPA’s 57th anniversary.

Delegates shared their views and reflections for the ongoing campaign among youth to join the people’s army. Members were reminded of the vital role of material and direct support from the youth for the armed struggle in every possible form.

Participants also sang revolutionary songs and held a cultural program led by invited members of Artista at Manunulat ng Sambayanan. The cultural activity became an occasion to honor the revolutionary martyrs of the movement.

“KM-DATAKO continues to persevere, together with all Filipino youth, to build and forge a new generation of revolutionaries ready to take on growing responsibilities in various fields of revolutionary work amid the deepening national crisis and the US imperialist war,” KM-DATAKO spokesperson Ka Kidawa Dayawen said.

In recent years, KM-DATAKO has carried out relentless efforts to strengthen itself and contribute meaningfully to advancing the people’s war in the country. KM-DATAKO held congresses and timely political conferences in 2019 and 2022.

Dayawen said fascists keep ranting every year about ending the NPA and the people’s armed resistance in the countryside. “Their pronouncements remain hollow and empty up to now. The fascist terrorist state will never defeat the people’s resistance,” she said.

Instead, the regime only compels the movement to grow stronger, as the state further exposes itself as a detestable enemy of the Filipino people. Dayawen emphasized that the US-Marcos–Duterte regime stands as the most rotten, corrupt, and puppet government and terrorist in the country.

Dayawen added that the spirit of the martyrs and heroes of the people lives on in every community, factory, farm, and school they wholeheartedly served. “The seeds sown by Ka Mando, Ka Recca, Ka Elvira, Ka Sibat, Ka Ricky, Ka Sly, Ka Trina, Ka Riotoc, Ka Libre, Ka Changli, and all revolutionaries who offered their lives for the ultimate end of centuries of exploitation by imperialism, bureaucrat capitalism, and feudalism continue to flourish,” she said.

Concluding the program, KM-DATAKO reaffirmed its firm resolve to further strengthen, expand, and clear the path for more youth to take the road of joining the toiling masses in the countryside by enlisting in the NPA.

“The people of the Cordillera and the whole country can be assured of KM-DATAKO’s unwavering determination, under the guidance of the CPP’s rectification movement, to courageously tread the path of advance,” Dayawen concluded.