We, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), wish to convey our most heartfelt condolences to the family of Comrade Jean Pestieau and to all his comrades in the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB-PVDA) over his passing away last November 14. We share your grief but we are also elated and inspired by his long and fruitful service to the proletariat and people of Belgium.

We join you in this memorial meeting to render tribute to Comrade Jean. His comrades in the PTB-PVDA are in the best position to present comprehensively and in detail his accomplishments as a proletarian revolutionary. But since the 1980s, we in the CPP and NDFP have come to know him closely as an ardent and consistent supporter of the Filipino proletariat and people in their revolutionary struggle for national and social imperialismliberation.

Our highest responsibles, delegations and representatives and our compatriots residing in Belgium, with whom he conversed, cooperated and interacted, testify that he is a communist of the highest calibre, worthy of our highest respect and tribute. We take this opportunity to thank Comrade Jean for his support to the new democratic revolution with a socialist perspective in the Philippines. We will be always be inspired by his high sense of proletarian internationalism.

We appreciate his love of family, his resolve adand militancy in struggling for socialism in Belgium, in educating and training younger comrades and his work in international relations on behalf of his party through which the CPP and NDFP met him in conferences, seminars, festivals and other public activities. He was truly a proletarian revolutionary fighter in the struggle of the international working class for socialism.

We are inspired by his declaration that his life has been fulfilled as a dedicated communist and as a revolutionary optimist and that he is confident in future generations. Indeed, the crisis of the world capitalist system is rapidly worsening and all major contradictions are intensifying. The anti-imperialist and democratic mass struggles of the proletariat and people on a global scale are ushering in the resurgence of the world proletarian-socialist revolution.

We share with him fully the hope and determination to pursue and realize the victory of the world proletariat and people in the struggle for national liberation, democracy and socialism against imperialism, revisionism and all reaction.

Long live the revolutionary legacy of Comrade Jean Pestieau!
Long live the Workers Party of Belgium!
Win the struggle for socialism in Belgium!
Advance the world proletarian revolution!