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Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Founding Chairman, Communist Party of the Philippines
Chief Political Consultant, National Democratic Front of the Philippines
Founding Chairman, Communist Party of the Philippines
Chief Political Consultant, National Democratic Front of the Philippines
I
join the Filipino people, the people’s revolutionary government, the
Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People’s Army, the National
Democratic Front of the Philippines, the revolutionary mass
organizations and other revolutionary forces in mourning the death of
Comrade Leoncio Pitao (Commander Parago) and in celebrating his
achievements from the time he joined the NPA in 1978 until his martyrdom
yesterday on June 28, 2015.
It
is fitting and proper that all of us accord him with the Red salute and
the highest respect and honor for serving the Filipino people and the
international proletariat. He is a great patriot, outstanding communist
fighter and revolutionary commander. He has made significant
contributions and the supreme sacrifice in the Filipino people’s
democratic revolution for national and social liberation against foreign
monopoly capitalism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism.
Comrade
Leoncio Pitao (Ka Parago) was devoted to the theory and practice of
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and applied it successfully together with other
comrades and the people in Southern Mindanao Region. He excelled as a
cadre of the Communist Party of the Philippines and as a commander of
the New People’s Army. He adhered to the Second Great Rectification
Movement and carried forward the building of the Party, the people’s
army and the united front.
In
advancing the people’s war, he integrated revolutionary struggle with
land reform and building the organs of political power and mass
organization. He applied the line of extensive and intensive guerrilla
warfare on the basis of a widening and deepening mass base. He developed
the closest of relations with the working people, the indigenous people
and allies.
He
had a mastery of the strategy and tactics of guerrilla warfare,
flexibly employing concentration, dispersal and shifting, depending on
the need in a fluid war of movement. He became known nationally and
internationally for the revolutionary victories as commander of the
First Pulang Bagani Company in the Southern Mindanao Region.
As
a result of correct political line and his effective tactical command,
this heroic and glorious company has grown into the First Pulang Bagani
Battalion. According to the Southern Mindanao Regional Command, Ka
Parago planned and commanded the countless disarming operations in the
1980s and 1990s, the capture of General Obillo and Capt. Montealto in
1999, the raid on the Davao Penal Colony and other many tactical
offensives.
Ka
Parago was captured in November 1999 and was put in solitary
confinement in the ISAFP headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo. He was offered
by the enemy a huge amount of money as bribe for him to leave and
denounce the revolutionary movement. But he outrightly refused the offer
and upheld his loyalty and commitment to the Filipino people and the
revolution.
The
lawyers of the Public Interest Law Center and the Department of Justice
pleaded to the court for his release as a goodwill measure of the
Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) in the GRP-NDFP
peace negotiations. It was during this time that the Chairperson of the
NDFP Negotiating Panel Luis Jalandoni and panel member Coni Ledesma were
able to visit him and hold a press conference with him. Ka Parago was
released from prison in 2001.
After
his release, Ka Parago decided to rejoin the comrades in the
countryside. And he continued to render outstanding service to the
revolutionary cause of the Filipino people, especially in the
battlefield. The enemy hated him so much that military agents abducted,
tortured, raped and murdered his 22-year old daughter Rebelyn, a school
teacher, and dumped her in a ditch in Panabo City in 2009. This
barbarity became the subject of outrage among the people and human
rights organizations in the Philippines and abroad.
Despite
the abduction, torture, rape and murder of his daughter, he continued
as a principled revolutionary to respect the policy of the CPP and NPA
for according lenient treatment to prisoners of war as well as the
International Humanitarian Law regarding respect for the human rights of
the said prisoners. Exercising political wisdom, he went so far as
issuing a statement to assure the families of enemy officers and men
that there would be no retaliation on them. As a matter of justice under
the people’s government, he sought out for punishment only those
identified as the abductors and killers of his daughter.
So
successful were the tactical offensives commanded by Ka Parago that
prisoners were often captured. He and the Red fighters under his command
used the necessary amount of force to achieve victory. But they were
lenient and kind to the enemy officers and men who surrendered or
survived the battle. The bodies of the dead were respected. The wounded
were treated by NPA medical officers. The prisoners received the same
food as the NPA fighters. They were released as soon as possible, as
long as they were not liable for any serious criminal offense.
For
an extended period already, Ka Parago had been ill with diabetes,
hyperthyroidism, hepatitis and hypertension. He was under medical
treatment at the time of his death. The comrades had advised him to take
a leave for medical treatment outside his area of command but he
insisted on staying close to the people. Investigation by the
revolutionary authorities has established that on June 28, 2015 at 2:30
p.m., an enemy team raided Purok 9 of barangay Pañalum in the Paquibato
district of Davao City, where Ka Parago was undergoing medical care, and
that there was no encounter between units of the NPA and the enemy.
The
enemy immediately raked Ka Parago with automatic fire upon sight of
him. His unarmed medical aide Ka Kyle or Vanessa Limpag had the chance
to raise her hands and shout that she was a medic. But she was mowed
down by the enemy raiding team. The enemy has withdrawn the photo and
video it previously published, showing the murdered Ka Parago in his
homewear and barefooted, with two obviously planted Armalite rifles for
photo takingclose to his and Ka Vanessa’s bodies .
The
enemy in its propaganda is gloating over their brutal killing of Ka
Parago and his medical aide. It is boasting that the revolutionary
movement is “declining”. It is oblivious of the fact that before Ka
Parago died he was able to educate and train so many revolutionary
successors in 37 years of revolutionary struggle. In recent years,
months and days, the reactionary armed forces and unwelcome foreign
monopoly enterprises have been receiving lethal blows from the NPA in
the Southern Mindanao region.
Ka
Parago continues to live and fight for national liberation and
democracy through his successors in the CPP, NPA and the mass movement.
After his heroic martyrdom, his successors are inspired and are ever
more determined to fight for a new and better world.
The
reactionary armed forces have concentrated more than 50 per cent of
their strength in Eastern Mindanao in the vain hope of defeating the NPA
here since sometime ago. But within this area, the NPA has enough room
for maneuver. The forces of the NPA are also taking advantage of the
reduced strength of the reactionary armed forces in other parts of
Mindanao and in the Visayas and Luzon in order to wage tactical
offensives. These are not being reportedly fully by the bourgeois mass
media.
There
is no way for the imperialists and the local reactionaries to stop the
growth of the CPP, NPA, the mass organizations and organs of political
powers, because the crisis of the world capitalist system and the
domestic ruling system of big compradors and landlords is ever worsening
and the broad masses of the people detest the intolerable conditions of
oppression and exploitation and are desirous of revolutionary change in
the face of the ever worsening conditions of exploitation and
oppression.
Long live the memory of Comrade Leoncio Pitao!
Advance the revolutionary cause which he fought and died for!
Long live the revolutionary struggle in Mindanao, Visayas and Luzon!
Carry forward the Philippine revolution!
Long live the Filipino people!
Advance the revolutionary cause which he fought and died for!
Long live the revolutionary struggle in Mindanao, Visayas and Luzon!
Carry forward the Philippine revolution!
Long live the Filipino people!