By Edwin Espejo
In
slippers and tattered shoes
On callous foot and in shorts.
Wearing red with their hearts out.
In their hoarsest voices they shout.
No longer nameless faceless
They could not care less
They came to honor the man
Ka Parago, the peasant’s son
They
could have carried his casket in the shiny black Cadillac. Instead they went
for a flatbed truck.
In
another time and space, few would dare attend his wake. Instead they came in
droves and from the mountains they trekked.
They
brought with them large pots and giant cauldrons. Their daughters and sons.
All
with one singular purpose. To pay their last respects to the man they call
Tatay – Leoncio Pitao who went by the nom de guerre Ka Parago.
Open
defiance
An
overcast Friday in Davao City was flaming red hot.
In
unprecedented show of force and open defiance, supporters and sympathizers of
the New People’s Army descended in the city, once the paradise and hell of
urban partisan warfare.
Not
since the early 1980s when the late Alexander Orcullo was laid to rest did a
throng of Leftist activists attended a funeral march in Davao City.
But
then again, none has ever been held for a slain New People’s Army commander in
decades of armed revolution.
One
cannot fault the supporters of the rebels.
Illustrious
son of the revolution
After
all, Leoncio Pitao a.k.a. Ka Parago headed the first ever battalion of the NPA.
He also was head of the biggest and strongest regional command throughout the
country with at least six sub-regional commands and two special operations
groups.
His
daring military exploits and long history in the revolution made him both an
urban and rural legend. The NPA’s most illustrious and successful commander.
In
turn, he also was the biggest target of the entire government security apparatus.
But instead of feasting on unabashed communist sympathizers openly calling for
armed revolution, the state’s security and armed apparatus chose to be at a
safe distance.
When
they finally got Ka Parago after 14 years of a massive manhunt operation, the
military proclaimed a huge success and pronounced the ‘death of the
revolution.’
With
more than a handful wearing masks with Ka Parago’s face Friday, the military
could now be dealing with more Paragos.
The
activists and militants wanted to prove the military doomsayers entirely wrong
in proclaiming the death of the revolution.
They
brought Ka Parago’s remains at the ‘Gates of the Enemy’ to borrow from the
title of a movie about a World War II Russian war hero.
In
an emotionally charged funeral march, they brought Ka Parago’s hearse to the
gates of the 10th Infantry Division in Panacan, Davao city – some 11 kilometers
from the city-owned Davao Recreational Center (Almendras Gym) at Camp Catitipan
(Police Regional Office 11) where his remains laid in state before heading back
at the People’s Freedom Park at the heart of the city where they assembled for
the final funeral march.
It
could have been their rebel’s version of a state funeral as well.
Ka
Parago led many long marches as a rebel commander throughout his 37 years in
the armed struggle.
Friday
was his last.
Pic:
In an unprecedented show of force and defiance, some 10,000 sympathizers of the
New People’s Army marched through the streets of Davao City Friday, July 10. Pic:
Edwin Espejo
Asian
Correspondent
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