[Music] on may 5 2005 the nation marked the passing of an era after a full life of 91 years death had finally silenced luis or popularly known as this documentary film is a testament of his life in his own words for when he was alive his was a voice that could not be silenced [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] one problem is now 70 percent of our people professional farmers you import rice that's right that's all over the world caused by hunger that's going to happen here very soon and the more swathers the more the politicians bring the world for that the problem creates greater and the population growth develops is tremendous because the catholic church doesn't want condoms in a filipino revolution the big question mark is the american response to it you know and yet it must be born in our minds that if we have to be truly independent we must skew we we must avoid being an american puppet that that kung lagang making independent detail we have to do it on our own in other words what i'm saying is that a filipino revolution should always be indigenous it must be a filipino effort like the vietnamese effort you know it should not be beholden to any nation it should not be beholden to the united states or or to china you know it should be an exclusively philippine effort and this is where caluis and i agreed completely he was not anti-american in that sense but he was a true nationalist [Music] [Music] um [Music] the footages show that even in his last years when his health allowed him guy luis found the energy and the vigor to speak out his mind of the same social ills that plagued his time and continued to play ours consistently raging against the forces of injustice repression and exploitation foreign [Music] [Music] foreign me [Music] [Music] indeed carlouise had much to say to those who cared to listen but it seemed there was not enough time to put it all on record in a sense he was a man who was running against time and this is one of his deepest fears that he would die even before he can pour out his thoughts to be forgotten to become irrelevant a revolutionary fossil so to speak so here then is a virtual testament an attempt to put him on record perhaps for the last time [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] this is the study room of kaduis which doubled as the national headquarters of the hook veterans association he organized cramped and barely lit here surrounded by memorabilia of eras long past john guy luis held office as a man of our time still involved so much passionately with our times he read newspapers avidly he devoured information and news keeping up to date with current happenings here and around the world aiding his poor eyesight with a magnifying glass he knew and followed events his mind was as sharp as ever he was fast and sharp with his comments on the current leadership never one to mince his words and did he speak in torrents but most of the time he talked since on the same table are files of poems and memoirs he left behind drafts waiting to be edited and revised he wrote until his death even if his arthritic hand slowed him down in writing his experiences and ideas the important thing is for us to have a sense of history calories had that he had the sense of history but that sense of history was rooted in the land itself he understood he understood the way i also understood it that the true nationalists are the farmers are the farmers because they are close to the land when when the farmer says uh in angbayan meaning the land because it's the land that sustains him see for many of us that sense of nationalism is not there it's it's amorphous it's something floating in the air you know the farmer leaves it because it's the land that sustains him in this age of the internet and electronic media in a political world which is being invaded by people from the entertainment industry where popularity counts more than substance or heft almost all our institutions are guided by personalities see and in that sense calories was a great personality great greater than all the other leaders of the hook belov uprising as a matter of fact i consider him the greatest figure of that rebellion a revolutionary who will always be a revolutionary kailuis was a major filipino figure who had been largely ignored by filipinos but his life and ideals had inspired another great revolutionary from halfway across the globe nelson mandela of south africa some years ago when our philippine ambassador lunidis kadai now retired had gone to mandela in pretoria to present his diplomatic credentials the south african president had told him quote please don't praise me too much i just followed what your own luis taruk wrote in his wonderful book born of the people unquote he was everyone's revolutionary he embraced everyone always reaching out to other people he did not belong to any specific narrow ideology he was open to new ideas he was willing to listen so it was only fitting that 12 years after his death kaluis was inducted into the nation's hall of heroes by the national historical commission at the unveiling of historical marker in taruk's hometown the executive director of the national historical commission of the philippines summed up the meaning of the ceremony quote over the course of his long life taruk was a nationalist and defender of the rights of farmers and workers unquote belated as it was the proclamation was deserving enough time has passed for our nation to welcome him to the hall of heroes [Music] [Music] the ancestral home of kaluis used to stand here in barrio santa monica in the town of san luis pompanga this is where he was born he was a fourth in a brood of five [Music] santa monica is across the pampanga river from the town proper a kind humble and soft-spoken man he worked hard and exceeded others in the produce of his share of land he never attended school he learned to read and write at home because of that he insisted his children should go to school and urged his wife to save every centavo to send them to school [Music] [Music] history the americans were always anti-communists my capitalist dianne see they were always they were they have always been anti-combination ruperta his mother and nicanor his father toiled on borrowed lands in san luis and in bali with much of the harvest going to the warehouse of the church or of a landowner the taruk children had to work their way to school or skip it on years when harvest was low it was a hard life he rose at five cooked rice then walked five kilometers to be at school by seven carrying rice wrapped in a banana leaf for lunch school never came easily for him eventually he finished the three-year intermediate course in two years with honors the train ran through san miguel and travels to and from other provinces in and out of the station after school he ran to grab their baggage he was a baggage handler a cargador they would give him five centavos for his trouble when he had completed the seventh grade in school he told his father that he did not want to be a peasant all his life his father was pleased for he believed that through learning his sons could escape the toil he had known little did luis know that he would have to work so hard to get an education in the years ahead the young luis went from one elder sibling to another in bambanga and tarlac helping out in their taylor shops to be able to finish high school as a young peasant boy he learned early about injustice every year after harvest the young louise watched from the dark corner of their knee behind the frustration and despair of his parents sadly phasing each other across the rough dulang counting corn grains or ballet or unhoused rice the grains of corn represented their death to the landlord one grain for every peso they borrowed during the planting season they produced 200 cavans of palais yearly every peso they borrowed was paid back with one cavan of palais and ten kavans were paid back for every five kavans of palai they borrowed five to seven cavans of malay were paid for each cavan of polish tries or because the landlord advanced for them to keep alive the debts of course grew from year to year and the corn grains were never absent from the lives of his parents one particular incident which he could not forget until now it happened when his father told him to sort out the corn for next year's planting season the nuns came and carried rosary books i told myself why do they call us thieves it was my father and mother who planted these now that we are harvesting these and they came and claimed that the corn is theirs his father sent him off to manila with a strict advice don't accept money that you didn't work for [Music] foreign this was how he supported himself through college at the national university in manila after more than two years in college he had a falling out with ventura who quarreled with manuel quezon over the hare hall's cutting law luis sided with quezon who was opposed to the presence of united states military bases after independence but who ended up ironically instead with another version titan's mcduffie law which signaled unfair trade luis found it useless at this point to be pursuing his studies when the government seemed not to be caring enough for the welfare of the common tao he left behind his wife feliciana and their newly born son romeo in manila [Music] [Music] is [Music] came from a well-to-do family in san fernando pampanga he attended good schools in manila then returned to pampanga to practice law during the revolution he fought first the spanish then the americans during the american period he earned a reputation as a skilled attorney and he got elected to congress while in congress he became increasingly concerned about the troubles of pompanga's rural folk he became more and more aware of social injustices around him he began to give free legal counsel to peasants and their organizations he was labeled as a radical and politicians dumped him from their party ticket this led him to found the socialist party of the philippines on the early 1930s by then he turned away from his elite background and became a prominent spokesman of several peasant groups and decided to live an ascetic life in a small house in san fernando which became the office of the socialist party and meeting place for peasant activists and leaders he also attracted young men who were serious about working in the peasant movement among them was the young luis tarouk perhaps seeing leadership qualities in the young luis alban santos opened his library to him and entrusted to him the organizing of the agumandareng maldang talapagobra or amt which meant general workers union one of his initial assignments from abad santos was to frame the constitution of the socialist party of the philippines which until that time had no constitution although it was organized by about santos way back in 1932 in the 1936 assembly luis was elected secretary general of both the socialist party and the amt but it was just a matter of time before the socialists merged with their natural allies from the political left the communists party foreign of leadership number projection national united front against fascism and is power and to boost nationalism and struggle for democracy and freedom the struggle is divided to two as long as we are under japanese elevation we stick to the first decision to produce a common from a core opportunity to fight the axis in the person of the japanese on december 8 1941 the japanese bombed clark air base the assessment of the two parties was proven correct the japanese invasion of the philippines in december 1941 provided the impetus that enabled a small number of untrained unorganized resistance fighters to become an effective guerrilla force growing out of initial discussions that began in december 1941 the military wing of the anti-japanese movement was officially formed on march 29 1942 and called [Music] um [Music] um [Music] because that is more interesting that's more meaningful than was the son of a person i knew all the work of the president but he was able to identify more with them you know the lavas were intellectuals they were urban people see they were thinkers see uh caluis also did a lot of thinking i'm not saying that he wasn't the thinker but he had that common touch you know he he was able to to really uh wield himself to the masa [Music] um after its conception in 1942 the military committee combined with cpp leadership to form the hook general headquarters or ghq luis taruk served as chairman of the ghq with castro alejandrino a former middle class landlord and mayor of arayat assisting him as vice chairman with a few trained fighters and even fewer weapons kaluis and his comrades established a base of operations in the vicinity of mount arayat and the neighboring kandaba swamp uh um [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] um [Music] the 100 man squadron was the basic unit of the hook organization the squadron was led by a commander an executive officer and an intelligence officer and was organized into platoons and squads two squadrons formed a battalion and two battalions made a regiment atop this structure set the military committee the recruits came largely from the amt chapters in pampanga laguna and quezon the number of fighters were between five thousand and one hundred thousand about thirty thousand were fully armed by guns that were left behind by the soldiers in the bataan death march of april nineteen forty two foreign the hooks eventually became the most feared guerilla group inflicting heavy losses on the japanese in central luzon and southern tagalog [Applause] kaluis and his forces launched small but annoying foreigns from this base against the japanese as they advanced across luzon toward bataan and koredor as their strength and popularity mounted the hooks activated additional squadrons and help from an all-chinese force the overseas chinese 48th detachment of the people's anti-japanese forces or wachi iran is foreign [Music] because we need the medicine the twin line for the malaria and from his own complex and mountain and i used to to vote every day to intervals i did not join the fighting squad foreign [Music] be cool [Music] time and again the japanese mounted major assaults on mount araya capturing hundreds of guerrilla prisoners most hooks managed to slip between the japanese lines to safety turning a near route into a moral victory the hooks drew strength and confidence from the japanese failure to destroy their strongholds [Music] [Music] foreign me foreign [Music] is [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] the japanese in policy did not want to be brutal but in fact that on very many instant instances they were it was the soldiers war is it it makes people pretty rough and sometimes harsh and cruel so they were they were executions and rape and a number of other things like that but in general the japanese official position was take it easy on the filipinos because we're not at war with the filipinos and with the uh with the internees well because they are civilians let us not be accused of barbarianism let's not be accused of brutality so by and large they tried to do that very often they failed concurrent with guerrilla operations against the japanese kailuis and the hooks began to develop village defense forces throughout the region these paramilitary units called barrio united defense corps or budc formed ostensibly to protect the villagers to promote law and order to promote anti-japanese sentiments and to deny the enemy access to food and supplies acting through the budc kaluis established governments to run the daily activities of the villages in 1944 carlouise refined hook ghq organization by adding subordinate departments responsible for specific functions and changed the military districts to regional commands the expanded ghq moved frequently around mount arayat and in the kandaba swamp most of his effort however was used to press on adjacent yusafi areas this developed into a low-level fight for control of central luzon between the hooks and american-sponsored units foreign just six days after u.s forces landed on leyte in october 1944 macarthur's headquarters ghq southwest pacific area issued a report on the hooks and their political ambitions whose objective was to establish a communist regime after the united states left the islands in southern luzon two hook squadrons cooperated closely with the us 11th airborne division and helped rescue american and allied prisoners from japanese prison camps at cabanatuan and los banos these successful actions members of these squadrons served as guides and interpreters while the division drove toward manila rv [Music] um foreign [Music] now [Music] based on wartime experience with a hook intelligence reports produced in the closing days of the war by the southwest pacific area staff and in collaboration with president osmena who had a narrow understanding of the hooks and their goals macarthur ordered the gorillas disarmed and dispersed it became official u.s policy to ignore the hooks considering them as bands of armed civilians during the closing months of liberation in 1945 the americans turned against the hokbalahap then government troops began arresting participants landlords and police victimized villagers who joined peasant organizations who petitioned for larger shares of the harvest they were the traditional enemies you know they were the worst oppressors of the peasantry in central luzon after they were alexis hacienda and they were provided by the government with urban civilian cards and tawagnon see and i wrote about this in one of my novels my brother executioner by design foreign in more than one instance hooks were confronted by armed u.s and philippine forces sent to carry out u.s policy regarding the disarmament of armed civilian groups in pampanga american troops surrounded three squadrons who refused to lay down their arms these hooks were finally disarmed at rifle point in mid-february u.s troops arrested members of the hook ghq and imprisoned them in san fernando when the route and alejandrino were arrested temporary control of the movement fell to mariano balgo's hook ghq political commissar balcos fled with many of his supporters to the jungles and swamps of central lazor and began the process of rebuilding the hook organization after 22 days of imprisonment taruk and alejandrino were released when mass demonstrations threatened to undermine peace throughout central luzon united states and philippine government authorities hoped that the two leaders would convince hooks to come in and surrender their arms the single worst thing that the yusafi and americans did to the was the massacre of one hundred nine okala guerillas guerrillas in squadron 77 were walking through madonna's on their way home to pampanga 7 87 [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] um foreign in september 1945 the top leaders of the resistance movement formally announced the end of the hap that is manuel rojas a politician and army brigadier general before the war was a government administrator during the japanese occupation at liberation rojas along with 5 000 others were taken into custody by u.s military authorities and imprisoned for collaboration due to his administrative skills and evidence that he collaborated to minimize violence directed against filipinos he was among many former government officials released on the orders of president osmena and general macarthur in april 1945 the americans called for elections rojas had strong support from macarthur and because of his administrative background was appointed to the osmena administration and soon returned to a position of power in the nationalist party from which he challenged president osmena forgot [Music] uh is [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign m [Music] foreign [Music] he will be a very useful puppet during the first post-war election in 1945 rojas was elected president and 45 members of the occupation government were returned to the legislature again again because of the strength of the the the philippi the philippine orlando elites they were able to ride roughshod over the democratic alliance in the interest of american federation they have to destroy almost best accused of terrorism on the heels of violent incidents against administration candidates carlouise was compelled to go back to the hills in august of 1946 even in absentia kailuis won under the democratic alliance the political party formed in an attempt of some leaders of the communist and socialist parties to go legally no my [Music] [Music] [Music] it was so absurd so conservative that imagine that in many schools the reading of the knowledge and the philly was banned in those days can you imagine that and any almost anyone who was for agrarian reform was considered you know a left he left history rebel you know foreign so much of our own politics was patterned after american trends upon the dictates of the americans themselves there was a committee of anti-american activities in the united states which was also followed in the in the philippines with the committee on thai filipino [Music] is [Music] m [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] in 1949 53 at the height of the level pricing they could have easily taken over manila they had manila surrounded already and there were fire fights right in the city the manila police then patrolled the the city with just hand guns they had rifles and armored cars you know when you went through central luzon huh by convoy and meaning to say they had to wait for the cars to group then with the buses that was there were armored cars that accompanied this this convoys through central zone by 1950 the guerrillas were approaching manila and the communist leadership decided the time was ripe for a seizure of power number one the hooks suffered a crucial setback when government agents raided their secret headquarters in manila the entire hook political leadership was arrested in a single night at the same time hook's strength was dealt another blow when u.s president harry truman alarmed at the worldwide expansion of communist power authorized large shipments of military supplies to the manila government another factor in the hook defeat was the rise to power of the popular ramon magsaysay his election as president in 1953 signaled a swing of popular support back to the manila government side did not destroy the hub uprising you know it he may have when we have uh how would they call it hassled you know its demise but it was the hooks themselves who destroyed their organization towards the end you know it's the same thing that is happening now to the new people's army so uh going back to my earlier statement that for all the sincerity of these people there should be a time when they are when they will be able to transcend their personal egos [Music] intensified struggle foreign what would have happened is that we would have become vietnam in other words the americans would have come here in full force especially since peru among american bases see in 1954 taruk emerged from the jungle to surrender and the rebellion for all practical purposes came to an end they prepared at the request of the american military headquarters a roster of all hokbala gorillas did this in good faith they gave the list to the cic people as one of the requirements to get formal recognition for the balah the list was used to pick up leaders and imprisoned or kill them foreign [Music] by 1954 the hostility between kailuis and communist party leaders deepened that he reasons out was why he entered into an agreement with a late benigno ninoy aquino jr then a news reporter for the manila times it was he admits the second and last peace negotiation with the government the first was during president el pidio gerino's time which failed because officials hired ben ulu to kill him cal luiz surrendered to magsaysay relying on the pledges transmitted to him by ninoy aquino and the late senator manny manahan instead of the preferred amnesty he was clapped in jail foreign [Music] was sentenced on august 30 1954 by judge gregorio narvasa to a prison term of 12 years and a fine of 20 000 pesos subsequently he received another sentence of life imprisonment on a murder charge which was commuted to a minimum of 17 and a maximum of 20 years and an indemnity of 24 000 pesos [Music] [Music] my [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] spent 14 straight years from 1954 to 1968 in a stockade shuttling from camps panopio aguinaldo and kramer finally on june 17 1969 caluis became due for automatic release on an earlier presidential pardon on july 1977 president ferdinand marcos designated him as special assistant on agrarian reform report emancipation of the presence from the bondage of judaism revolutionary words liberation of the farmer from the bondage of but opinism building open your society word i want to correct the injustice done to you by permanent administrations in the american government of the triglycography because i'm also a guerrilla you know suffering after he was released from prison by president marcos caluis no longer had the heart for armed struggle as the way to achieve social justice and equality for farmers and the dispossessed peasants his life was devoted to peaceful but productive endeavors that harnessed the power of collective action his focus turned to forming cooperatives in pampanga and nueva ecija where people were receptive to his call for collective action through peaceful and legal ways cooperatives fitted his lifelong belief in socialism without the violent and dictatorial ways of achieving collective ends [Music] certificates [Music] lupa [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] my foreign [Music] foreign he lost no time in getting in touch with his former comrades in the struggle like jesus of nazareth god louise went from one body to another preaching the gospel of collective ownership calling the farmers and peasants to band together into cooperatives kaluis was busy talking to cooperative members giving counsel listening to their problems till the end of his life in one of his recent public appearances he visited normiswari in fort santo domingo's detention center in santa rosa laguna kailuis met with imprisoned moro national liberation front rebel and x-a-r-n-n governor nurmiswari to sign a valentine day of love covenant pledging to join our minds hearts and soul in the spirit of love humbly besieging allah god to bless our aspiration for peace and national unity for the future of dear motherland and the future of our people the rest of the text of the love covenant asserted on this day february 14 1939 in pampanga president manuel quezon assisted by then secretary jose abad santos proclaimed his social justice program today in laguna birth place of dr jose rizal our foremost national hero we nur mizuwari and luis m taruk offer the remaining days of our lives to continue our quest for social justice for our people randy david recalls my father was a young attorney who prosecuted him and put him to jail in his last years he came to visit our home [Applause] i am no longer concerned with today's dirty politics but in promoting love and compassion for all for the sake of our children and future generations guy luis had been branded as a godless communist but surprisingly he believes in god in his idea of socialist society he believed that the laws of god are vital no no i really mean it you this probably explains why pat luis was never a real communist and the more one listened to him the more one saw christian ideals alive in him he was a man who had renounced material things and had devoted himself to his fellow men [Music] [Music] [Music] i'm [Music] [Music] [Music] happy birthday [Music] happy birthday [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] you