Coming from a poor peasant and farm worker’s family, Comrade Jonard Salo grew amidst the exploitative and oppressive hacienda system in Negros.

In working in the vast sugar fields of North Negros he was confronted with abject working condition, low wages, lack of benefits, lack of social services from the government and other inhuman treatment.

Like what usually happened in the countryside, he also suffered from the brutality of the fascist soldiers of the AFP during military operations.

Because of poverty, he was not able to attend school and given the opportunity to learn to read or write. He allots most of his time in backbreaking work to support his family.

These concrete experiences drove him to study the condition of the society and paved the way for the foundation of his revolutionary consciousness. When the organizing work of comrades reached his village in Barangay Winaswasan, Caltrava, Negros Occidental without any hesitation he embraced the cause of armed revolution as his own.

In mid 2000 he enlisted in the NPA and dedicated his life to serve the people fulltime.

Inside the revolutionary movement he was known as Ka Lino, Rapid, Nikko ug Karen and affectionately accepted by the masses as one of their best sons.

Despite limitation in literacy, Ka Lino actively participated in theoretical studies and trainings. He overcame this limitation by arduous study and persistent practice.

He eventually learned to read and write in Bisaya and Hiligaynon, as well as, some Filipino and English. He later became an instructor in political education and Party courses.

He was also trained in military, political, medical, production works and other fields of revolutionary work.

In more than one decade of serving the oppressed Ka Lino was tempered as a Party cadre and Red commander. In 2013 he was selected as a member of the Front Committee (FC) and served as one of its platoon leaders.

Yesterday, April 15, 2022, Ka Lino was martyred in armed clash with the fascist soldiers of 11th at Sitio Tulong, Barangay San Enrique Villanueva, Sibulan, Negros Oriental. His death might have brought us sadness but his daringness to fight to the last breath end inspires us to carry on his unfinished mission until its ultimate completion.

Revolutionaries may fall in the battlefield, but the revolution can never be vanquished. So long as exploitation and oppression persist, the masses will rise up to chance the rotten semi-colonial and semi-feudal system of society.

The desperate brutal measures of the US-Duterte regime are bound to fail and his regime will be relegated in the dustbin of history. While the people’s democratic revolution will advance nearer to its final victory. ###