The Regional Operations Command of the New People’s Army in Southern Mindanao accords its highest revolutionary honors to Junjie “Ka Jiko” Rodinas and Albert “Ka Ivy” Viva, martyrs of the Filipino people and the revolutionary movement. Together with the entire revolutionary forces in the region, we salute these young Red officers who have lived full lives in the service of the people and the national democratic revolution.

Ka Jiko, 36, was martyred following an enemy raid on September 15, at around 5:30 pm in Sitio Flortam, Brgy. Batasan, Makilala town in North Cotabato. Ka Ivy, 34, meanwhile, was killed by enemy troops in Brgy. Baracatan, Toril District in Davao City on September 16, at around 9:00 in the morning.

Ka Jiko, who hailed from a revolutionary peasant family, joined the NPA in June 2010 and became a combat medic, a political guide, a military cadre and finally one of the political officers of the Mt. Apo Sub-Regional Command during the time of his death. A lover of revolutionary culture, he was a talented guitarist and singer, even penning revolutionary songs about guerilla life and the joys of serving in the revolutionary movement.

Quiet and pensive, Ka Ivy was patient and unassuming, yet faithful to the Party’s principles. He joined the NPA as a product of the Party’s relief and rehabilitation program after Typhoon Pablo ravaged Agusan del Sur in 2013. He was a military cadre beloved by the masses for his good nature and by his fellow Red fighters for being an exemplar of fortitude in the midst difficulties and sacrifice. In 2017, he wholeheartedly accepted his new deployment as an officer of the 1st Pulang Bagani Battalion operating in Davao City.

Both from peasant families, Ka Jiko and Ka Ivy were outstanding role models of today’s youth. They confronted their class origin’s centuries-old problem of feudal exploitation not by becoming servile to the greedy interests of the landlords and the semi-feudal society, but by conscientiously engaging in class struggle and taking up arms in the ranks of the NPA. They had become the true sons of the toiling masses, living and working with the peasants and Lumad in their areas of responsibilities.

In the face of our collective grief, all Red fighters and commanders in Southern Mindanao vow to courageously advance the revolutionary armed struggle as being the best way to commemorate the lives of Ka Jiko and Ka Ivy. We are committed to intensify the people’s war, wage agrarian struggle and establish the Filipino masses’ organs of political power. We are especially emboldened to fast track the present goal of the toiling masses of overthrowing the thoroughly fascist and rotten US-Duterte regime and exact revolutionary justice for all the victims of its tyrannical rule.

The US-Duterte regime and fascist bigwigs of the AFP boast of having secured significant achievements with the deaths of Ka Jiko and Ka Ivy, purporting that martial law and Oplan Kapayapaan have weakened the revolutionary armed resistance of the Filipino people. Having caused nothing but economic ruin and widespread destitution to the masses, this tyrannical regime can indeed only claim achievement in their brutal counter-insurgency campaign of killing civilians, activists and beloved heroes of the revolutionary movement.

Comrade Mao Zedong once said that to die serving the people is heavier than any mountain, but to die in the service of the fascists, exploiters and oppressors is death lighter than a feather. The heavy weight of significance of Ka Jiko and Ka Ivy lies not only in their deaths that will be remembered by tens of thousands of masses, but, more importantly, in their lives which inspire more youths to join the arm struggle and wage the people’s war.