November 01, 2021
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) is one with all revolutionary forces and masses of the country, and all progressive-minded Filipinos, in mourning the death of legendary New People’s Army warrior and commander, Communist Party of the Philippines spokesperson, and Filipino revolutionary hero Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos.
We know Ka Oris as a good and humane person who devoted almost the entirety of his life to the Filipino people’s struggle for national freedom, democracy and socialism, and against imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism. He was a frail and soft-spoken intellectual who, driven by revolutionary hatred for the injustices in Philippine society, found revolutionary courage in the peasant and Lumad masses of Mindanao and their people’s army.
He had been in the New People’s Army since the US-Marcos dictatorship and had persisted in the armed struggle through periods of advance and strength, and periods of setbacks and weakness. He joined the NPA during the fullness of his youth and remained active through the years even when he had to carry a catheter because of a medical condition. He lived a meaningful life for the Filipino people, and his death is as heavy as the mountains of his beloved country.
Ka Oris and his medic, Eighfel dela Pena (Ka Pika) were on their way to get medical treatment for Ka Oris when they were ambushed and killed by members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Both were unarmed.
The killing of Ka Oris and his medic is a violation of International Humanitarian Law, which aims to limit the impacts of armed conflict on people who are not participating in armed hostilities. It highlights the utter bankruptcy of the government, its military and police, and its counterrevolutionary agencies by resorting to the dirtiest methods of eliminating revolutionaries in their failed objective to preserve the rotten system ruled by imperialists and big compradors and landlords against the challenge posed by the people’s revolution.
After killing Ka Oris, military Brig. Gen. Romeo Brawner announced through government media that he and his men, supported by airstrikes, were able to retrieve Ka Oris’ lifeless body after a big encounter with the NPA. There are many reasons for Brawner’s lie, all malevolent: to cover up the crime and avoid accountability for it, to depict the cowardly military as heroic, to claim the huge amount of money that the government has placed on Ka Oris’ head, to seek promotion in the reactionary military bureaucracy, to report to their neocolonial masters that their military aid has been put to “good” use.
Not satisfied with their lies on how they killed Ka Oris and Ka Pika, the military cremated their remains on the excuse that they were covid positive. They did not even wait for the families to claim the bodies. They did not want independent pathologists to perform an independent autopsy on the remains of the two martyrs.
For the Filipino people, Ka Oris is not the evil persona the military would like to paint him to be. Ka Oris is a true revolutionary and the people’s beloved warrior. The time he spent living among the masses teaching and learning from them have endeared him to the masses.
Together with other members of the revolutionary movement in the countryside, he engaged the masses in discussions about the reasons why they should take up arms and defend themselves, develop their capacity for change and development, and fight for their rights and lives. In doing so, Ka Oris became one with the masses.
On the other hand, the Filipino people have experienced the brutality and dastardly acts of the military and police forces of the government. They know that it is not their interest that is being served by the reactionary forces. That is why they side with the revolution. And that is why the revolution will win.
The revolution, watered by Ka Oris blood and heroism, lives on. Across the country, thousands will rise up to carry and wield the guns of the just people’s war and continue the revolutionary struggle until victory and beyond.
The reactionaries will surely have a momentary feast over his death, but the Filipino people and revolutionary forces will forever cherish and champion Ka Oris in their hearts, minds and revolutionary struggle.
Long live Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos, an exemplary revolutionary hero of the Filipino people!
Down with his murderers!
Down with the Duterte regime and its armed minions!
Down with imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism!
Long live the just and revolutionary struggle for national freedom, democracy and socialism in the Philippines!
