The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)-Mindanao renders its highest tribute to Ka Anthony Narvasa, Ka Magaw—also known among comrades and the masses as Dewin, Ingko, Janjan, and Kaloy—and to Ka Rosa Kian, Ka Roxanne, who were martyred in a defensive action against the 603rd Infantry Brigade in Barangay Laconon, Tboli, South Cotabato on April 9, 2026.
The entire revolutionary movement in Mindanao extends its deepest condolences to their families, comrades, and loved ones.
Ka Magaw and Ka Roxanne devoted their lives to advancing the people’s democratic revolution and waging protracted people’s war against US imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism. Their martyrdom affirms a basic truth: as exploitation deepens and national oppression intensifies, the masses resist, and armed struggle emerges as necessity.
Ka Magaw was organized as a young student activist in Tagum City during his college years. Early on, he grasped the semicolonial and semifeudal character of Philippine society and immersed himself in the urban mass movement, advancing struggles among workers and the urban poor against capitalist exploitation, demolitions, and dispossession.
When not fewer than ten cadres were dispatched from Southern Mindanao to Northern Mindanao to strengthen urban work in Cagayan de Oro, Ka Magaw was among those handpicked. As a full-time organizer of urban poor organization in Cagayan de Oro City, he worked tirelessly with his collective, without fatigue or hesitation, traversing major urban poor communities such as Carmen, Consolacion, Macabalan, Lapasan, and others. There, they waged collective struggle against demolitions, defended sidewalk vendors from harassment and expulsion, and compelled the local government to halt evictions, provide relocation, and allow space and time for vendors to sustain their livelihood.
He practiced close and disciplined integration with the masses—deeply relating with mothers, fathers, and the youth. He was approachable, unpretentious, and firm, building unity and trust. Through this, spontaneous grievances were transformed into organized resistance, and new cadres were developed from among the urban poor.
He was assigned to carry out organizing work among workers, and later in urban poor communities. He led effort to strengthen the unity and consolidation of Party cadres. Together with the collective, he unified scattered forces, inspired part-time members to become full-time organizers and campaigners, recruited younger and more energetic cadres, and boldly expanded work into new areas.
He displayed initiative even in electoral campaigns—organizing spontaneous supporters into volunteers, consolidating them during breaks, and developing new full-time organizers after every campaign cycle. He was not without weaknesses, but he consistently practiced criticism and self-criticism, learning from errors and strengthening his work.
Under sustained surveillance and harassment by AFP intelligence, he did not retreat. While others withdrew due to fear of arrest, he remained, learning to maneuver under constant tailing, open harassment, and daily monitoring, ensuring the continuity of revolutionary work.
In 2009-2010, he was deployed to Far South Mindanao Region to help strengthen Party committees in factories and urban poor communities. Later, he was reassigned to do work among youth and students. . He carried out this task decisively, contributing significantly to the reinvigoration of the youth-student movement.
Even after returning home in 2010 and starting a family, he did not abandon the struggle. From Davao to Cagayan de Oro and onward to Far South Mindanao, he continued to serve the people despite the sacrifices of distance from his loved ones.
His death bears the weight of Mount Balatucan upon the movement—but this weight steels resolve. His life helped many understand social injustice and the necessity of revolutionary struggle. It continues to guide cadres and masses in advancing the fight for liberation.
In 2018, under Martial Law in Mindanao imposed by the Duterte regime, Ka Magaw made the decisive step to join the New People’s Army. He did so without hesitation, fully aware of the sacrifices required. He abandoned the relative comfort of his class background and embraced the difficult path of armed revolution.
In the countryside, Ka Magaw and his unit immersed themselves among peasants and Lumad communities, advancing agrarian revolution and building organs of political power. They strengthened unity among Lumad, Moro, and peasant communities in struggle.
Operating under relentless military offensives, the unit achieved rapid expansion. In some areas, within barely a week of arrival, mass contacts surged to the point that the unit had to shift immediately to another cluster before enemy forces could concentrate. They boldly linked with the masses not only in communities but also in forested areas and farms. Almost all newly contacted masses quickly embraced the politics of the movement.
As one of the leading cadres in the Far South Mindanao Region, Ka Magaw played a key role in the rectification movement being carried out by the Party since 2023. He helped in strengthening ideological work and contributed to the Party’s effort to overcome the problems of conservatism, ultrademocracy and bureaucratism and other weaknesses.
Together with his unit, he participated in tactical offensives against enemy forces securing corporate plunder. On May 14, 2022, a unit of the New People’s Army ambushed elements of the 57th Infantry Battalion in a forested section of Purok Dulangan, Km 18, Barangay Salangsang, Lebak, Sultan Kudarat.
The action took place within a concession area and was welcomed by Lumad and Moro communities, who linked the increased military presence to the return of logging and agribusiness operations of D.M. Consunji, Inc. This was not merely a military action, but a political assertion of the masses’ right to defend their ancestral land.
The struggle against DMCI has spanned decades, from Timber License Agreements granted during the Marcos dictatorship covering 150,000 hectares in the Daguma Range, to renewed attempts at logging and mining backed by militarization. Armed struggle, together with mass resistance, has repeatedly disrupted these operations.
Ka Roxanne, a daughter of the Dulangan Manobo people, rose from among communities subjected to land dispossession, militarization, and systemic discrimination. As a Lumad woman, she experienced layers of oppression imposed on national minorities.
She joined the New People’s Army and, together with her unit, actively participated in organizing, political consolidation, and defense of communities under military threat. She helped strengthen unity among Lumad, Moro, and peasant communities confronting land grabbing and state violence.
Her struggle was rooted in the conditions of the Daguma mountain range. Since 2022, large-scale coal mining operations by Daguma Agro Minerals Inc. and Bonanza Energy Resources Inc., linked to San Miguel Energy Corporation, have seized and devastated more than 17,000 hectares of forest and agricultural land, including ancestral territories of the Dulangan Manobo and T’boli.
Coal is hauled daily to ports in Maitum for energy plants in Davao and Sarangani. Residents have been displaced, forced to sell land for as little as ₱80,000-₱100,000 per hectare, or subjected to harassment and arrest, including the detention of farmers who resisted.
Mining has caused pollution, water contamination, and destruction of vital river systems, threatening the Kabulnan and Allah rivers and the Liguasan Marsh. Landslides, sinkholes, and floods have already occurred following operations.
This plunder is enforced through militarization. Communities have faced encirclement, forced surrender campaigns, and massacres, including the 2017 killing of Dulangan Manobo leaders in Lake Sebu.
Yet the masses resist. Lumad and Moro communities continue to oppose mining, logging, and land grabbing through mass struggle and armed resistance.
In this context, Ka Roxanne stood as part of the collective struggle of her people. She fought as one of the masses, embodying their resistance. Her life affirms that the struggle of the Lumad is inseparable from the struggle for national liberation.
The work of Ka Magaw and Ka Roxanne unfolded under intensified imperialist plunder in Far South Mindanao. Land is seized. Communities are displaced. Militarization enforces exploitation. These conditions generate resistance.
Guided by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, the revolutionary movement advances agrarian revolution, builds organs of political power, and strengthens the worker-peasant alliance.
In their final engagement, they and their unit faced superior enemy forces in sustained operations aimed at encirclement and annihilation. They stood their ground and fought as a collective forged in years of struggle among the people.
They fell in the course of advancing the revolutionary struggle they upheld until the end. The enemy relies on brute force. It cannot eliminate the conditions that give rise to resistance.
Their death is a great loss to the entire revolutionary movement in the Far South Mindanao Region. But in their martyrdom, countless more Ka Magaw and Ka Roxanne will rise from among the masses to advance the struggle.
Their lives form part of the unbroken chain of revolutionary struggle in Mindanao. What they helped build will endure and advance.
The NDFP-Mindanao calls on all revolutionary forces and the broad masses to carry forward their legacy.
Persevere in protracted people’s war.
Advance agrarian revolution and defend ancestral lands.
Expand and consolidate the revolutionary mass base.
Intensify tactical offensives against the enemy.
Strengthen the alliance of workers, peasants, and national minorities.
Transform grief into revolutionary resolve. Advance the struggle without pause.
Pulang saludo kina Ka Magaw ug Ka Roxanne!
Mabuhay ang Bagong Hukbong Bayan!
Mabuhay ang Communist Party of the Philippines!
Isulong ang rebolusyong Pilipino!
