Philippines: Tributes to three comrades who gave their life for the revolution

Featured image: Josephine Mendoza, known as Ka Sandy, passed away in the age of 59 on the 10th of November. Source: PRWC

On November 10th Josephine Mendoza, known as Ka Sandy, a member of the central committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the second secretary of the Party’s regional committee of Southern Katagalugan, died in the age of 59. She devoted more than four decades of her life to serving the revolution and the oppressed and exploited masses. To her last breath she was concerned about the tasks and the comrades she was leading.

Ka Sandy became part of the Party in the 1980s, during struggles against the Marcos regime. She joined the youth organization Kabataang Makabayan in 1982, and in 1984 she became a member candidate for the Party and a member of the New People’s Army. In1986 she became a Party member. She worked in Mindoro with propaganda and education, as a writer and a member of the editorial board of the Alab newspaper and later as a member of the Mindoro Island Committee. In 1994, she was transferred to Palawan, where she was the second secretary of the Palawan Island Committee, which successfully established three new guerrilla zones before she was transferred elsewhere.

Ka Sandy was known for her persistence to overcome all obstacles and her hard work to advance the revolution. ”Ka Sandy’s life was great and full of suffering for the masses and the revolution”, the Regional Committee of Southern Tagalog of the Communist Party of the Philippines writes in their tribute to the comrade, highlighting her contribution to the mass movement in Southern Katagalugan.

On the 13th of November Jethro Isaac Ferrer, known as Ka Pascual and Peter Rivera, known as Ka Rochie, gave their lives for the revolution, murdered by the 76th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army. Ka Pascual was an intellectual from a petty-bourgeois background, and Ka Rochie was a peasant. Both had dedicated their life to serve the masses and the Party, always working to overcome the remnants of the bourgeois and feudal influence they grew up with. They worked closely together with the broad masses in Mindoro, especially the peasants and national minorities, serving in the ranks of the NPA.

Before joining the NPA, Ka Pascual worked as a propagandist in Manila, where he had attended the university. He used his expertise in video making to mobilize not only students but also workers and peasants. He worked to organize other cultural workers and propagandists. Later he was recruited by the Party, took the decision to join the NPA, fulfilling his childhood dream of becoming a soldier – but not for the oppressor, but for the people. In the NPA, he continued his work as a propagandist, contributing to many publications of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

”They only lost their physical bodies, it is certain that their positive memories left to the masses, comrades, loved ones will never be erased. Their embrace of the correctness of the armed struggle will serve as the fire and flame that we will withstand until the next stage of our people’s war. They are role models and inspiration in continuous action and service to the masses of the people for a society free from the oppressed and oppressors”, Eduard Labrador, the spokesperson of the National Association of Peasants – Southern Tagalog writes in a message of condolences.

Ka Sandy, Ka Pascual and Ka Rochie all gave an example of serving the people with their whole heart, and giving their life for the revolution.