The Regional Committee of the CPP and the Chadli Molintas Command (CMC), the NPA Regional Operational Command (ROC), in the Ilocos-Cordillera Region (ICR) fervently convey highest revolutionary honor to Moises “Ka Andrei” Balabag, Eugene “Ka Ken” Hilaus, Jeloven “Ka Duma” Escobilla, and Eric “Ka Chico” Dayandante. We salute these four comrades; they are, indeed, revolutionary martyrs from the NPA–Agustin Begnalen Command of Abra.
Ka Andrei was killed in an encounter between the NPA and the fascist AFP forces from the 50th IBPA and the 98th IBPA on July 19, 2026 in Barangay Apao, Tineg, Abra. In said encounter, Cpl. Drexter Gumayat was killed and two other fascist soldiers were wounded.
On the other hand, after a series of 4 to 5 encounters between more than a company-sized fascist AFP forces and a small NPA squad of Red fighters in Barangay Bonglo, Licuan-Baay, Abra from August 2 to 4, 2026, killed in action were Ka Ken, Ka Duma and Ka Chico. The big composite enemy troops came from the 50th IBPA led by Lt. Col. Ferdinand Baluyot and the 98th IBPA under Lt. Col. Melchor Balasi.
Long live Ka Andrei!
Ka Andrei, 34 years old, is from the Mabaca tribe of Malibcong, Abra. He comes from a lower-middle peasant family. After his elementary graduation in 1998, he became an informal worker in Bangued, Abra. Then in 2017, Ka Andrei decided and joined the NPA Agustin Begnalen Command.
While Ka Andrei was in the Red People’s Army, he was one of the team leaders and vice squad leaders. He always upheld NPA discipline and policies. He was expert in the use of mountainous terrain to lure and counter-attack the attacking enemy. He was good in production work for the consumption of the NPA unit. He was good in catching fish and hunting wild animals. He was always humble, cheerful and very much intensely interested and active in revolutionary cultural activities.
Long live Ka Ken!
As to the class background of Ka Ken, he comes from the lower section of the urban petty-bourgeoisie in Quezon City. While studying at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), he became a member of the Kabataan para sa Tribung Pilipino (KATRIBU). Although he was not part of the national minority, he expeditiously studied and understood national oppression as a special added problem of the indigenous and Moro people, besides the 3 basic problems of Philippine society, i.e., US imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism. By integrating himself with the indigenous people, he saw the oppressive system of the current reactionary government plundering the environment and the ancestral lands of the Moro and indigenous people. He saw the continuing neglect of the reactionary state in addressing the complaints and calls of the toiling Filipino masses, especially the working class and the peasantry. On the contrary, he has seen that oppression and exploitation has always been and continues to be the response of the reactionary government, which primarily pushes forward the political and economic interest of the few ruling class oppressors and exploiters. Hence, it was due to all these that Ka Ken, when he was 18 years old, joined the NPA in the Cordillera in December 2018 and became active there in the revolutionary armed struggle.
As an NPA guerrilla, Ka Ken always associated himself closely with the indigenous communities in the Cordillera. Henceforth, he was known as jolly and easily approachable. He learned well the language of the indigenous people and made use of it in order to serve them. He was known by the masses as a good teacher. He fully made use of his skill in drawing and contributed it to Dangadang, a revolutionary newspaper in North-Western Luzon under the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist guidance of the CPP.
Long live Ka Chico!
Semi-proletariat is the class background of Ka Chico. His family is just one of the many semi-proletariat households residing in Caloocan City since the 1980s. He finished elementary in 1992. He was a high school graduate in 1996. Through the support of his uncle, Ka Chico went to college as a student of an engineering course but stopped in second year college due to the lack of finance.
In 1998, he became an active member of the underground KM (Kabataang Makabayan), and became a fulltime KM activists since then. He was recruited as a Party member in January 2000, and continued his fulltime work in arousing, organizing and mobilizing other youth in schools but also including the many OSY (out-of-school youth) from the semi-proletariat and urban poor communities in the CAMANAVA areas, the 4 cities of the Northern Manila District, namely, Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela.
In April 2002, Ka Chico, 22 years old, decided to join the revolutionary armed struggle, and became a member of the Abra NPA Agustin Begnalen Command. By 2006, Ka Chico was promoted as member of the Abra Provincial Committee. In 2013, he was chosen as a member of the Regional Party Committee called Far North Luzon. He continued as a regional cadre when the Ilocos-Cordillera Region, which was established in 1998, was brought back in 2016.
For 24 years and despite complexities and problems, Ka Chico never lie-lowed from the revolutionary armed struggle. He continued revolutionary work up to his death as a proletarian, ideological instructor as well as a political officer, and a fulltime guerrilla fighter. It is best to summarize Ka Chico’s revolutionary life in the following words of one of the ICR cadres: “Malalim ang ugat ni Ka Chico sa masa. Kilala siya ng mga bata at matatanda. Mahusay na artista ng bayan. Magaling maggitara, kumanta, umarte. Handang handa na laging magtanghal sa mga masa at mga kasama. Simple, masayahin, mapagbiro, humble, magiliw sa mga kasama. Hindi namimili ng gawain, kinakaya niya ang mga atas sa kanya. Malalim ang commitment niya sa CPP-NPA.”
Long live Ka Duma!
Regarding the class background of Ka Duma, he comes from the lower section of the rural petty- bourgeoisie. According to the military, his place of origin is Barangay Lower Olave, Buenavista in the province of Agusan del Norte. Actually, Ka Duma was a long-time regional cadre from the North Central Mindanao Region (NCMR). In 2018, he accepted the national call to be deployed to Northern Luzon, particularly to the ICR.
During the past 8 years, Ka Duma has helped a lot in giving ideological and political education to regional, provincial and front cadres. To summarize the 8 years of Ka Duma’s revolutionary life in the ICR, let us quote here the following from one of the ICR cadres: “Tumugon si Ka Duma sa panawagan kahit malayo ang pinanggalingan. Kahit nahihirapan ay nagsumikap siyang aralin ang lokal na lenggwahe at angkupan ang kabuuang kalagayan. Matibay si Ka Duma. Pwede naman siyang bumalik na lang sa pinanggalingan niyang lugar; pero pinili niyang manatili sa Cordillera.”
A revolutionary rejoinder to the fascist and reactionary AFP
Sa pahayag ni MGen. Gulliver L. Señires, Commander ng 5th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army, sinabi niya: “bukas kami at maging ang lokal na pamahalaan ng Abra na buksan ang lokal na usapang pangkapayapaan para sa mga natitira pang kasapi ng ICRC.”
The three basic problems of Philippine society – US imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism – which are, in fact, the root causes of cronic poverty, inequality and social injustices in our country and at the same time the root causes of the ongoing civil war – can never be resolved through localized peace talks. In reality, these three basic problems, the exploitative and oppressive system of the ruling class and its reactionary government as well as the fascism and the pro-US imperialist character of the AFP- PNP have become and will continue to be the best sources from where recruits of the NPA come.
Only through national peace negotiations between the NDFP and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) can help resolve the root cause of the civil war. But the national peace negotiations must be based on the four substantive agenda in the September 1, 1992 “The Hague Joint Declaration”, agreed upon by both panels and approved and duly signed by their respective principals, namely, NDFP Chairperson Manuel Romero on Sept. 9, 1992, and GRP President Fidel V. Ramos on Oct. 8, 1992. These 4 substantive agenda are: (1) Human rights and international humanitarian law; (2) Socio-economic reforms; (3) Political and constitutional reforms; and (4) End of hostilities and disposition of forces.
The first substantive agenda was finished and both Negotiating Panels and their principals signed the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) on March 16, 1998. But this agreement has never been implemented because the GRP has always been ruled by fascist and reactionary leaders, and the whole AFP-PNP is under the military power of US imperialism. The draft of the second substantive agenda was, indeed, finished under the title Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms (CASER); but this was not approved and signed by both panels and their principals because autocrat Rodrigo Roa Duterte arbitrarily stopped the national peace talks, demanded the NDFP, CPP and NPA to surrender, declared the CPP-NPA as terrorist organizations, institutionalized the NTF-ELCAC (National Task Force–End Local Communist Armed Conflice) and signed the Anti-Terrorism Law.
Sinabi pa ni MGen. Gulliver L. Señires na nawa’y magsilbi ang pagkasawi nila alyas Andrei, alyas Ken, alyas Duma at alyas Chico na paalala sa mga natitirang kasapi ng CTG (Communist Terrorist Group) na may pakakataon pa silang talikuran ang armadong pakikibaka at piliin ang landas ng kapayapaan. Nananatiling bukas ang pamahalaan sa mga nais magbagong buhay at muling makapiling ang kanilang mga pamilya.
The CPP-NPA-NDFP and the Filipino toiling masses will never give up but will continue the revolutionary armed struggle in order to advance the National Democratic Revolution forward through protracted people’s war and attain national liberation, people’s democracy and national sovereignty. Only when national liberation, people’s democracy and national sovereignty is achieved that lasting and just peace shall reign in Philippine society.
Dagdag pang sinabi ni MGen. Gulliver L. Señires: “Sa kabila nito, hindi titigil ang kasundaluhan na protektahan ang mga mamamayan ng Abra mula sa mga miyembro ng ICRC na patuloy na kumikilos sa nasabing lugar na mas piniling lumaban kaysa magbalik-loob at magbaba ng mga baril para sa pangmatagalang kapayapaan.”
This is nonsense! For how can the fascist and reactionary AFP protect the people of Abra! In reality and historically, the fascist and reactionary AFP forces have brought countless human rights violations in the whole province of Abra. The exacerbation of HRVs had been proven during the anti-CRC struggle against the reactionary army and constabulary forces of the US-Marcos Dictatorship (USMD). Currently, the fascist and reactionary AFP has a plan to establish a so-called 2,000-hectare military complex in the towns of Villaviciosa and Luba that would serve as their headquarters and also as military base of foreign soldiers of US imperialism. If this would push through, this would dislocate the residents of said towns and destroy the production areas of the peasantry and would result to people’s insecurities. Due to this, the people of Villaviciosa and Luba have already begun to voice out publicly their plan to oppose said military complex.
In reality, the presence and main objective of the fascist and reactionary AFP in Abra is to protect not the people of Abra but the foreign capitalists and big comprador bourgeoisie businessmen and their large-scale mining concessions in Abra which has rich deposits of minerals like gold, silver, copper and non-metallic deposits like clay, limestone and rock phospate. Just last April this year, the residents of Sallapadan, Abra started to oppose the mining operation plan of Yaman Mineral Corporation (YMC) because of its considerable threat that would plunder and destroy the environment and people’s livelihood. The YMC has plans to mine also the other towns of Daguioman, Bucloc and Boliney, as well as the municipalities of Licuan-Baay, Lacub and Malibcong.
Hence, the people of Abra must expose and oppose the role of the AFP and other military forces of the reactionary state serving as security forces of mining companies not only in Abra but also in the other Cordillera provinces such as Benguet, Mountain Province, Kalinga and Apayao that also have rich mineral and non-metallic deposits. For the Cordillera people, this is not new; wherever development aggression projects are implemented, there also are the AFP forces to protect such destructive projects and violate the basic human rights of the indigenous people to defend their ancestral territories and struggle for their basic right to self-determination and democracy (RSDD), as well as genuine regional autonomy within the context of the National Democratic Revolution.
Revolutionary salute to Ka Andrei, Ka Ken, Ka Duma and Ka Chico!
The martyrdom of Ka Andrei, Ka Ken, Ka Duma and Ka Chico must strengthen our resolve that only through the people’s war and the militant resistance of the Filipino mass movement for national liberation and people’s democracy that the 3 root causes – which have led the country to mass poverty, human rights violations, social injustices and economic underdevelopment, and have fuelled the armed conflict for more than six decades now – will be brought to an end. More and more people must realize that armed revolutionary resistance is necessary, just and legitimate for the Filipino masses to liberate themselves from the reactionary state’s fascism, corruption, plunder, repression and abuses in order to achieve a just and lasting peace. The Filipino masses including the Filipino Igorots must recognize more and more that just and lasting peace can only be attained by firming up the people’s democratic power to overthrow the landlord-comprador bourgeoisie dominated state, and establish a truly democratic government that genuinely represents and serves the Filipino people and their interests, and that advances the agrarian revolution and national industrialization in order to lay the foundations of a bright socialist future of Philippine society.
Long live the revolutionary heroes and martyrs in the ICR and in other regions of the country! They have, indeed, dedicated selflessly their lives to further advance the struggles of the Filipino people for national liberation and democracy towards a bright socialist future.
source: Philippines Revolution