Armando Cienfuego, Spokesperson of NPA-Southern Tagalog
Joventud Del Fierro, Regional Committee-Southern Tagalog
Patnubay De Guia, NDF-Southern Tagalog
The whole revolutionary movement in Southern Tagalog renders the highest tribute to Comrade Lorelyn Saligumba, hero and martyr of the revolution and of the people. Comrade Lorelyn was a health worker who decided to embrace the path of revolution and armed struggle and committed her whole life to rendering service to the masses in the countryside who have been deprived for so long of medical and decent livelihood by the rotten system.
She was one of the Morong 43 progressive health workers who were illegally arrested, detained and charged with trumped up cases on February 6, 2010. A year after her release, her realization that the cure for the rotting cancer of society could only be found through armed struggle was solidified. Under this circumstance, she searched for links to the New People’s Army through her barriomates who are members of revolutionary organizations in their locality, thus began her loyal and selfless service to the interest of the oppressed and exploited masses.
Without hesitation she accepted the task of returning to recovery areas to bring medical services and to educate the masses on how to face and fight Covid-19. Her unit was in the process of accomplishing their medical mission when their position was surrounded by the military last June 4, 2020 in Barangay Mangangan Uno, Baco, Oriental Mindoro.
Comrade Lorelyn was wounded and hit on the leg but she was able to put a tourniquet and wrapped bandage on her wound to stop the bleeding before retreating. The enemy caught up with her at a brook while she was crawling away. She was hors de combat or without the ability to fight. She was alive when arrested, interrogated, and strangled before she was mercilessly killed, her body riddled with bullets by the fascists.
We emphatically condemn the 203rd Infantry Brigade under Col. Jose Augusto Villareal for murdering Comrade Lorelyn – who was already wounded and without the capacity to fight – instead of just arresting her and applying appropriate medical attention on her wound caused by the fascist bullets. Their act is a clear violation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHIHL) and Protocol I and II of the 1977 Geneva Conventions.
We condemn the malicious linking by General Burgos of the case of Comrade Lorelyn Saligumba who was part of the Morong 43 to an attempt to acquit the 202nd Infantry Brigade/2nd ID PA and PNP for illegal arrest, planting of evidence and detention of legitimate health workers in Morong, Rizal in 2010.
If anyone of the Morong 43 decided to look to the revolution and armed struggle for solutions to the grave and deep roots of the rottenness of the ruling system, as Comrade Lorelyn did, it comes from their strong belief of the necessity to excise the cancer of society through revolutionary means.
They themselves are witness to how rotten the justice system of the reactionary regime is and how the police and soldiers manufacture evidence to illegally detain their victims. This injustice pushed them to embrace the revolutionary solution and abandon the path of reforming the exploitative system through legal and parliamentary process.
We also condemn the false gesture and “kindness” of General Burgos and 203rd IB of returning to the family the remains of Comrade Elmar Murillo who was martyred during an encounter in Socorro, Oriental Mindoro and their promise of returning the remains of Comrade Lorelyn to her families and relatives in Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro.
General Burgos and the 2nd ID are hypocrites. For more than a month now, the 80th IB has been blocking and leaving the family hanging on the return of the remains of Comrade Noel Levanta who was martyred in Puray, Rodriguez, Rizal. The same was carried out by the 80th IB and 202nd IB which blocked the families from getting the remains of Comrade Ermin Bellen and Lucio Simburoto, victims of ala-Tokhang extra-judicial killings by military and police in Antipolo, Rizal last December 2019.
The ruling regime cannot rule by clothing itself with bourgeois-democratic trimmings. It wants to kill the legitimate resistance of the people through violent and repressive means. The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict-NTF-ELCAC is scheming to kill all legal opposition and critics in the name of anti-communism. The fangs of state fascism and terrorism are sharpened further by enacting into law the more cruel Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 cooked up by the anti-people Senate and Congress.
As the contradictions in Philippine society and the crisis of the ruling system intensify, the instruments of state fascism which include the executive, legislative and judicial branches along with the state security forces (AFP and PNP), jails and agencies to deceive the people, will be laid bare. It will stoke the fire of people’s resistance and embrace of the revolution. Many Lorelyn Saligumba will rise up from the ranks of the fighting people to carry arms and traverse the path of armed struggle.
Long live the revolutionary spirit of Comrade Lorelyn Saligumba, wife, daughter and good mother to her children. Her footsteps will be followed by thousands upon thousands of people who desire to cure the rotting cancer of Philippine society just as she did. The weapon she laid down will be carried by those like her, good children of the people to continue her fight to achieve genuine peace, prosperity and democracy in our country.
Long live Comrade Lorelyn Saligumba and her revolutionary ideals!
Death to the fascists!
