Luis Taruc

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In this Philippine name, the middle name or maternal family name is Mangalus and the surname or paternal family name is Taruc.
The Honorable
Luis Taruc
Taruc in 1954
Member of the Regular Batasang Pambansa from Agricultural sector
In office
June 30, 1984 – March 25, 1986
Member of the Interim Batasang Pambansa from Agricultural sector
In office
June 12, 1978 – June 5, 1984
Member of the Philippine House of Representatives from Pampanga's 2nd district
In office
December 30, 1969[1] – September 23, 1972[2]
Preceded byÁngel Macapagal
Succeeded byPosition abolished
Position next held by Emigdio Lingad
In office
May 25, 1946 – June 1, 1946[3]
Preceded byJosé Fausto
Succeeded byArtemio Macalino
Personal details
Born
Luis Mangalus Taruc

June 21, 1913
San Luis, Pampanga, Philippine Islands
DiedMay 4, 2005(2005-05-04) (aged 91)
Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines
Political partyIndependent (1969–2005)
Democratic Alliance (1945–1949)
Other political
affiliations		Socialist Party of the Philippines (1938–1954)
Spouse(s)Feliciana Bernabe (d. 1938)
Enna Cura (d. 1946)
Gregoria Calma (d. 1952)
RelationsFrancesca Taruc (granddaughter)
Children1
Alma materUniversity of Manila
Known forLeader of the Hukbalahap
NicknameKa Luis[4]
Military career
Allegiance Hukbalahap
Philippines (until 1946)
Years of service1942–1954
Luis M. Taruc Freedom Park in San Luis, Pampanga in Barangay San Sebastian, beside Barangay Santa Cruz Poblacion along the Baliuag-Candaba-San Luis Provincial Road

Luis Mangalus Taruc (Tagalog pronunciation:

guerrilla operations against the Japanese occupants of the Philippines
.

Influenced by his socialist idol Pedro Abad Santos of San Fernando, and inspired by earlier Katipunan revolutionaries such as Felipe Salvador, Taruc joined the Aguman ding Maldang Tala-pagobra (AMT, Kapampangan for 'Union of Peasant Workers') and in 1938, the Partido Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (Socialist Party of the Philippines). The latter merged with the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas as part of the Common Front strategy, and Taruc assumed the role of Commander-in-Chief of the military wing created to fight the Japanese.

After the war against Japan, the Hukbalahap continued their demands for agrarian reform. Taruc and seven colleagues were elected to the House of Representatives, but the government of Manuel Roxas did not allow them to take their seats in Congress. The Taruc faction opposed the parity rights that the U.S. required from post-independence Philippines as a condition for rehabilitation funding. In the next five years, Taruc would give up on the parliamentary struggle and once more take up arms. At the height of its popularity, the Hukbalahap reached a fighting strength estimated at between 10,000 and 30,000. In 2017, the National Historical Commission of the Philippines declared Taruc a hero for being a "nationalist and defender of the rights of farmers and workers".[6]

Early life and career

Luis Mangalus Taruc was born of peasant stock in the barrio of Santa Monica, township of

goiter and anemia.[5]: 15  He then married Enna Cura on 4 June 1939. Luis would serve time in prison three times before the war, in his struggle for the militant workers' and peasants' unions.[5]: 15  Enna died of sepsis and diabetes on 8 March 1946.[5]: 63  Luis later married Gregoria Calma (Liza).[5]: 65–66, 84  She was killed by government soldiers on 11 April 1952.[5]
: 113, 120–123 

World War II

On November 7, 1938, the Philippine Socialist Party and the Communist Party of the Philippines merged, forming a united front "to fight against fascism and war", though each party retained its own organizations until 1941.[5]: 17–18  They pledged loyalty to the Philippine and United States government's anti-Japanese crusade in December 1941.[5]: 20  Following the Japanese invasion, Taruc formed the Hukbalahap (Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon or the "People’s Army Against the Japanese" in English), along with Casto Alejandrino and other guerillas, in central Luzon on March 29, 1942, became its commander-in-chief, and chairman of the Communist Party's Military Committee.[5]: 22 [9]: 21 

He led a large people's army against the Japanese invaders, and their "puppet constabulary", as Supremo Luis Taruc,[5]: 22  or "Lu-Lu" ("the racing one"), then "Alipato" ("the flying spark that spreads a fire"). According to Luis, "There was a period when we had an American officer officially collaborating with our work."[5]: 24  Taruc credited his prominence through his "identification with the simple, sincere, and courageous peasants."[5]: 22  However, Luis noted, "...most of the time, the American authorities were suspicious of this unconventional army whose politics they suspected."[5]: 24  Yet, the Hukbalahap under Taruc did become an effective armed guerilla force.[5]: 22 

Post-war years

Taruc was elected to the Philippine House of Representatives in 1946 as a member of the

Parity Amendment to the Constitution, and the Military Bases Agreement.[5]: 26  To secure the majority necessarily to pass the amendment President Manuel Roxas arranged for Taruc and the other oppositional Democratic Alliance members to be ejected from office by the Commission on Elections on the grounds that they had been committing election fraud and terrorism.[5]: 26 [10]

Taruc went underground in late 1946, following failed negotiations with President Roxas, and the Huks soon numbered 10,000 armed fighters.[5]: 27  Subsequent negotiations with President Elpidio Quirino in June and August 1948 also failed.[5]: 28–32  By the presidential elections of 1949, the Huks had abandoned electoral politics in favor of armed insurgency.[5]: 45, 59  The Huks controlled most of central Luzon, the “rice basket” of the Philippines, including two provincial capitals, by 1950.[7] Their motto, "a democratic peace, or martyrdom."[5]: 43  Luis states, "The peasants' hatred was founded on centuries of exploitation and oppression, feudal landlordism, and bad government. But the rich...were driven by fear of losing their power and their social privilege...this was naked class war."[5]: 57  In the Politburo meeting of December 1949 to January 1950, the Huks were reorganized as the HMB, "Hukbo Mapagpalaya ng Bayan", or "People's Army of Liberation", with Luis as a Politburo Supervisor (PBS) for the Party's Regional Committee, Reco 2, in the Zambales Mountains.[5]: 68–73, 78  By November 1950, Luis was removed from his post of command entirely.[5]: 86–87  By then, the Huks had 15,000 armed men, and the country was embroiled in a "miniature civil war", with ambushes on the major highways common.[5]: 88–89 

President Quirino assigned

Benigno Aquino Jr., appointed as President Ramon Magsaysay's representatives, met with Luis Taruc.[5]: 134  After four months of negotiations, Taruc surrendered unconditionally to the government on 17 May 1954,[11] effectively ending the Huk rebellion. On 15 June 1954, Luis met with President Magsaysay and Gen. Eulogio Balao at Camp Murphy, where Luis agreed to a trial.[5]
: 139, 141 

Taruc's trial started in August 1954, where he pleaded guilty to rebellion, "in the spirit of my agreement with the president", and sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment, plus a "huge fine".

feudal elite
.

Legacy

Taruc Hukbalahap Monument (San Luis, Pampanga)
Historical marker

Taruc dictated Born of the People (1953) to American communist and ghost writer William Pomeroy. Luis Taruc used Alipato, meaning "spark that spreads a fire", as his pseudonym.[13] "Born of the People" was Nelson Mandela's reference on peasant resistance and guerrilla warfare when he was the commander in chief of the uMkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation).[14]

While in New Bilibid Prison, Taruc composed He Who Rides the Tiger (1967).[5]: 3  Luis wrote, "I know now from experience, that the nationalism of the Communists is indeed opportunism, and that they use it for their own ends. Any nationalist who makes an ally of the Communist is going for a ride on a tiger."[5]: 21  Additionally, Luis wrote, "For ruthlessness and cruelty are alien to Christian thought, and when men in the Free World use such methods, they do so in defiance of their own morality and ideals. The atheist Communist, however, believes that the end justifies the means, or in Lenin's words, 'Morality is subordinate to the class struggle.' For this reason, the Communist can pursue a policy of terror and cruelty with a clear conscience."[5]: 52–53 

Taruc Museum in San Luis, Pampanga

In 1985, Taruc would tell

F. Sionil Jose that one of the reasons for the failure of the insurgency was that dissenters were killed. He also said that dogmatic fundamentalism scared away many potential allies.[10] The Huk movement commanded an estimated 170,000 armed troops with a base of two million civilian supporters at the apex of their power in 1952.[15] In 2003, he explained to historian Keith Thor Carlson that he attributed the revolution's failure to the dogmatism of members of the politburo's Russian-trained elite, in particular José and Jesus Lava, an accusation that runs contrary to the views of the Lavas and William Pomeroy who countered that Taruc suffered from a cult of personality.[16]

Several Huk veterans organizations dispute the credit heaped on Taruc for organizing the Hukbalahap during World War II. They contend that Taruc only joined the movement when several prominent Huk leaders were captured and executed by the Japanese, and that there were several Huk brigades operating in concert, under Castro Alejandrino, Eusebio Aquino, and Mariano Franco among others.[15]

Death

On May 4, 2005, Luis Taruc died of a heart attack in

St. Luke's Medical Center in Quezon City at the age of 91, a month before his 92nd birthday. Many political figures went to Luis Taruc's wake to pay respect and give support to his family.[17]

See also

References

  1. ^ Elected in absentia in 1969 after granted amnesty
  2. ^ Congress was dissolved when President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law on September 23, 1972.
  3. ^ Elected in 1946. Served for only a week and left to resume the leadership of the Hukbalahap Rebellion.
  4. ^ Sangil, Max (September 25, 2019). "Sangil: The surrender of Ka Luis Taruc (Last part)". SunStar Publishing Inc. Retrieved November 18, 2023.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at Taruc, L., 1967, He Who Rides the Tiger, London: Geoffrey Chapman Ltd.
  6. ^ Orejas, Tonette (June 26, 2017). "Huk founder Taruc finally declared hero by gov't body". Inquirer News. INQUIRER.net. Retrieved October 30, 2019.
  7. ^ a b "Luis Taruc | Filipino political leader". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  8. ^ “Born Again of the People: Luis Taruc and Peasant Ideology in Philippine Revolutionary Politics,” Histoire Sociale / Social History. Vol. XLI, No. 82, Nov 2008, 417-458.
  9. ISBN 0813119499
  10. ^ a b Manuel L. Quezon III: The Daily Dose » Luis Taruc
  11. ^ Farewell to a life-long advocate of social change: Luis Taruc, May 9, 2005, Manila Bulletin.
  12. ISBN 978-0-275-56830-6
    .
  13. ^ Aliases - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos Archived 29 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ American socialist in the Philippines - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos Archived 23 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  15. ^ a b [email protected]
  16. ^ Jesus Lava, Memoir of a Communist (Anvil Press, 2003)
  17. ^ "Honors set for Hukbalahap Supremo's 100th birth anniv". Sun*Star Pampanga. June 4, 2013.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Luis Taruc.

Further reading

  • Zaide, Sonia M. (1999). The Philippines: A Unique Nation. All Nations Publishing.
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