The usual question asked to someone who is in the midst of an unspeakably trying situation but who has somehow admirably survived the tribulation or ordeal sounds like this: “Where do you draw strength during this fateful moment in your life?”.
For most people, the imagined intervention by some guardian angel or saint or God himself is the life-sustaining factor. But to men and women of firmer stuff, the display of extraordinary fearless stance vis-à-vis the possibility of death is a manifestation of inner strength that derives from a politico-ideological conviction. Or a revolutionary historical mission.
In the latter case, it works as an irrepressible, indomitable force which makes one belittle perilous paths that could lead to brinks of death. Such is the virtue possessed by revolutionary cadres who despise extreme hardships and sacrifices in the lofty pursuit of national democracy and liberation.
Harrasments, threats, and tortures invariably employed by the fascist troops and agents of the State in their counter-insurgency efforts are futile weapons against the fire of nationalism burning in the hearts of revolutionary activists and cadres. The possibility of getting into a circumstance wherein supreme sacrifice is an inevitable eventuality does not dampen their ardor to “seize the day, seize the hour” in revolutionary mass work—in the countryside or in the cities.
Countless martyrs from the ranks of the armed contingent of the revolutionary struggle have laid down their lives. Shorn of “pomp and heraldry” in commemorating their heroic deeds and deaths, they shine as exemplary torch-bearers in the yet untrodden paths of the revolutionary struggle. Certainly, they have successfully passed on the torch to the revolutionary fighters who are now in the forefronts of the war against the armed forces of the Noynoy Aquino puppet government.
Under the auspices of US imperialism, this reactionary puppet government is toying with the wishful thought that its current counter-insurgency offensive, codenamed Oplan Bayanihan and deceitfully dangling “peace and development” slogans, will triumph before the end of Noynoy Aquino’s presidential term!
But it is bound to fail.
As more and more battalions of mercenary fascist soldiers are deployed in the countryside, graver and graver violations of the people’s human rights will be committed by the soldiers. And they will be met with ever-widening , ever fiercer resistance by the revolutionary masses of the people . And from the inexhaustible energies of the masses will unfold unprecedented forms of guerrilla warfare that will confound the fascist military’s arsenal of deceit, psywar and treachery.
The willingness to absorb all forms of sacrifices in the conduct of the war of resistance against State militarism and fascism springs from the indefatigable spirit and ideological integrity of the people whose lives and commitment are beyond doubt and whose unreserved selflessness is manifest. Truly, the ultimate test of a true revolutionary is his fearlessness to face death when circumstance arises in the service of the people’s cause.
His constant guiding principle is the mass line. For the masses and the masses alone are the real makers of history.
Currently, Mindanao constitutes a microcosm of the deepening crisis the Philippines under the Aquino regime is undergoing. It is here in this big island in the south where the massive concentration of its counter-insurgency forces is being implemented. But it is also here where people’s martyrs— the likes of Fr. Frank “Ka Migo” Navarro and Paking Guimbaolimot— will rise from the ranks of the revolutionary masses as dauntless fighters for the cause of the National Democratic Revolution now raging in the countryside.
