Today, Bikolanos honor the birth and celebrate the heroism of one of its most esteemed children – Simeon Ola of Albay. But more than declaring a holiday, fashioning ceremonies and fleeting commemoration, the highest tribute fellow Bikolanos can bestow upon Ka Simeon is to embrace the path of revolution.

During his time, joining Katipunan was also considered a crime. The Church and the Spanish government sully the movement and call them heretics, infidels and enemies of the state. Joining must be of the utmost secrecy for it is of the gravest threat to be branded a Katipunero – it spelt not just torture but summary execution. The Filipino people were urged to forget taking up arms. Purportedly, it would cause nothing but lawlessness, poverty and never-ending grief to the masses.

But the most loyal children of the land like Simeon were not persuaded. They knew that only through the path of struggle could they attain the emancipation and genuine societal justice that they have longed for, not only for themselves, but for the generations to come. Scores of peasants, workers, intellectuals and professionals took up arms. The government’s hunt for them be damned, the people’s war’s correctness remained clear to them. With all fortitude, they have embraced the revolution in the name of their beloved country.

The story of Simeon Ola, the Katipunan and the Filipino people is carried on by the people’s democratic revolution led today by the CPP-NPA-NDF. Until now, countless children of the land readily leave the comforts of their past and dedicate their lives for the pursuit of genuine liberty and a future that shall truly serve the majority. Even when the fascist government hunt them down, pervert their names and call them terrorists, the present-day revolutionaries know for certain that for the masses to arm and defend themselves against forces of oppression and exploitation is nothing less than just.

This is the lesson and challenge to all present-day Bikolanos. Simeon Ola’s day reminds everyone that true heroism is in the valiant championing of the masses’ interests no matter the cost. It is the boldness to go against the current and to espouse the path of armed revolution.

What the ruling state has to say must not cow the people into submission. The ruling few will never recognize the true heroes of the masses. From then until today, those who value liberty and their country are constantly branded as terrorists, heretics and state enemies. This is just a small part of obstacles that the masses must overcome to attain a future that will serve them. In the end, just like the so-called heretics of their time – the Katipuneros, history will be the final judge of who really is a terrorist and who are the real heroes who served the people’s interests.