59. 14 NOTABLE HUK KUMANDERS

The HUKBALAHAP (Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon) was born during the Japanese Occupation (1942-1945) as a Japanese resistance group. After becoming alienated from the U.S.-Philippine government, the army became HMB (Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan), with ties to the Communist Party of the Philippines. Taruc claims that the alliance’s purpose was more organizational, rather than ideological. In any case, HMB became the military arm of this merger. At its peak in the 1950s, HMB had over 11,000 members. Pres. Ramon Magsaysay put the Huk rebellion in control, but their campaigns would surge again in the 1960s, gaining more ground in the ‘70s with the formation of Buscayno’s New People’s Army.  Here is a comprehensive list of “Huk kumanders” from this turbulent era in our history.

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HUK SUPREMO TARUC

Luis Mangalus Taruc (b. 21 June 1913/d. 4 May 2005) was the primary leader of the HUKBALAHAP between 1942 and 1950. His involvement  came after his initiation to the agrarian problems of the peasantry as a student in the early 1930s, joining the "Aguman ding Maldang Tala-pagobra" (AMT) and in 1938, the "Partido Socialista, ". During the war, Taruc led the Hukbalahap in guerrilla operations against the Japanese. Demands for agrarian reforms continued after the Japanese regime. In 1946, Taruc was elected to the Congress, but Roxas prevented him from taking his seat . He was against the parity rights that the U.S. required from the country as its condition for rehabilitation funding. Thus,  Taruc gave up his parliamentary efforts, and took to armed struggle. Negotiations with Pres. Elpidio Quirino in 1948 failed. By the 1950, Huks—now reorganized as HMB, controlled most of central Luzon. When Pres. Magsaysay began a relentless campaign against the Huks, Taruc hid in Arayat. Manuel Manahan and Benigno Aquino  Jr., negotiated for his surrender, which happened on 17 May 1954. Put on trial, he pleaded guilty to rebellion,  and sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment. He was also found guilty  for the execution of Tarlac governor Feliciano Gardiner and received four life sentences. Pres. Macapagal disapproved his call for clemency; he was pardoned by Pres. Marcos in 1968. After his release, he continued to work for reforms—from equitable distribution of land to strengthening the legal rights of farm workers. In 2017, on his 104^th birthday, the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NCHP) affirmed his role in the pursuit of freedom and in the agrarian reform struggle and declared him as a hero.

VICE COMMANDER CASTO ALEJANDRINO
Coming from a non-peasant background, Casto Alejandrino  (b. 18 Nov. 1911/d.12 Jul. 2005) of Arayat supported the Aguman ding Maldang Talapagobra (AMT) and the Socialist Party because he was fed up with the elite Nacionalistas who were not receptive to instituting reforms. With the 1938 merger of the Communist and Socialist parties, Alejandrino became a key member of the Central Committee of the Partido ng Komunista ng Pilipinas. He was elected Socialist mayor of Arayat in 1940. When the Hukbalahap movement was organized to fight the Japanese, Alejandrino was elected as vice commander to Luis Taruc, Reco 3 leader, and named “Huk governor” of Pampanga.  Alejandrino was arrested and jailed in 1945, but was later released following protests from 40,000 peasants. He carried on the fight when the Communists were outlawed, assuming the leadership left by Taruc when the latter surrendered and sentenced to jail. Alejandrino tried to conduct peace talks with Pres. Magsayasay, but the movement had waned in the late 50s. He was captured in 1960, served 15 years in prison and released in 1975. Alejandrino died 2 months just after Taruc’s passing.

KUMANDER ALIBASBAS (Cesario Manarang)

Concepcion-born Cesario Manarang was already a Huk when Casto Alejandrino changed the name of Hukbalahap into HMB. He was a sort of a folk hero to the farming community; peasants regarded him as a sort of a local Robin Hood, giving food and dole-outs, and protecting peasants from oppression.  In 1965, a schism in HMB resulted in the formation of two groups, one loyal to Kumander Alibasbas, the other to Sumulong. Alibasbas, who was head of the HMB military committee, had thrown his support to the candidacy of Diosdado Macapagal for president, whom the Army also favored. Alibasbas, on the other hand, was pro-Marcos, who also enjoyed the confidence of the Philippine Constabulary.  In the end, Kumander Alibasbas, along with three of his children, were massacred in Almendras, a sitio of San Bartolome,  Concepcion, Tarlac on 2 Feb. 1965, paving for Kumander Sumulong’s ascent to power.

KUMANDER BILOG (Rodolfo Salas)

Rodolfo Salas graduated from Holy Angel University in 1964 as the Class Salutatorian. He joined the militant Kabataang Makabayan and later, the Communist Party of the Philippines where his superiors took note of his intellect and intense patriotism. Salas wa named as a regional secretary, in charge of recruitment. He assumed the chairmanship of both the CPP and the NPA following the arrests of Joma Sison and Kumander Dante. Arrested after the EDSA Revolution, he was jailed in Camp Crame for 6 years and released in 1992.

KUMANDER BIO (Eusebio Aquino)

In his mid-50s, Kumander Bio was one of the oldest field commanders of Hukbalahap, an “erect, soft-spoken, ramrod-like old man” as described by Luis Taruc. Eusebio “Bio” Aquino was a nephew of Gen. Servillano Aquino, and a cousin of Benigno Aquino Sr., Ninoy’s father. He was a carpenter-blacksmith by trade, so when he joined the Huks, he took the name,”Panday Pira”. As a Huk leader, he was known to champion the causes of peasants by forcing landlords to share their hoard of rice in their warehouses so that the poor, hungry farmers and their families could eat. Kumander Bio  hid in Arayat when the Philippine puppet government under Japan was established. He renounced his relationship with cousin Benigno Aquino Sr. when the latter became a director-general of KALIBAPI (Kapisanan ng Paglilingkod sa Bagong Pilipinas). The wise and brave commander is credited with saving American pilot. Col. Gwen G. Atkinson. The colonel defended Kumander Bio before Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who told him, “I don’t care even if they are Communists. I saw how they treated American flyers and I saw how the people followed them”.  

KUMANDER DANTE (Bernabe Buscayno)

Bernabe Buscayno was one of 8 children of poor tenant farmers fom Capas, Tarlac. His father was forced to give up his children for adoption with the death of Bernabe’s mother and sister. Bernabe, a Holy Angel College drop-out, enlisted with the Huks at age 21. By 23, he had risen as Kumander Sumulong’s district commander. A rift with his leader resulted in the foundation of New People’s Army (NPA), which, after joining forces with new Communist Party leader Joma Sison, became its military arm. Dante’s group fought against the Marcos Regime which tagged him as ”the most aggressive Huk commander” in the country. Operation: Scorpio was launched to catch him, so  he moved his NPA base to Isabela.  Captured in January 1977, Dante, age 32, was tried and sentenced to death. He was released after the EDSA revolution, and a year later, ran unsuccessfully for a senatorial slot under Partido ng Bayan. In 1987, Dante escaped an ambush, that left him wounded and two companions dead. Returning to Capas to be a farmer, he founded a cooperative to help peasants, but which floundered due to Pinatubo. Undeterred, Dante set up another cooperative that sought to mechanize farming operations in 2000.

KUMANDER ELY (Dominador Garcia)

Dominador Garcia was the no. 3 man in the HMB during the resurgence of the Communist menace that plagued the Marcos regime. As such, a good price was put on his head and the Philippine Constabulary kept a close watch on him. In March 1967, troops ringed a small house in Mabalacat town for 11 hours, until they cornered Kumander Ely, who surrendered without a fight. The Huks retaliated by deploying an 18-man assassination squad that killed 5 men and kidnapped two others in Pampanga. Over 3,000 government troops were sent to track them down

KUMANDER HIZON (Benjamin Cunanan)

Teen-ager Ben Cunanan joined the Hukbalahap during the Japanese Occupation, and showed such courage in combats that he became a unit commander. He took the nom de guerre “Kumander Hizon” in honor of the brave Kapampangan revolucionario, Gen. Maximino Hizon. At the peak of the movement, he headed Field Command 78, the largest unit of HMB. One of his biggest recuits was Bernabe Buscayno. Kumader Hizon headed the last remaining HMB unit, fighting in the Pampanga-Tarlac area, until his capture by the dreaded Tabak division in 1961—right in his own home. He was known to be the last real Huk commander to fall, as all other Huk captives of the Philippine armed forces were often dubbed as “kumander”. Tried for murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, Kumander Hizon stayed in jail for 16 years, longer than any Huk. Luis Taruc offered to arrange a presidential pardon, but Hizon refused to meet Marcos. Upon his release, he attempted to reorganize his comrades into a new rebel army, but  by then, they were too old to fight and carry on the struggle. H died died on 2 Nov. 2010, age 82 in Pasig.

KUMANDER KISLAP (Eugenio Santos)

The commander from Macabebe, Eugenio Santos, served under Fernando Poblete’s Banal Regiment. Kumander Kislap was put in a group that included Lino Dizon and Domindaro Yabut and Mariano de Joya,  charged with recruiting new Huk members, going as far as the southern provinces, like Batangas to look for prospective recruits.

KUMANDER LIGAYA (Manuel Dimatulac)

A native of Concepcion, Tarlac, curly-haired Manuel “Maning” Dimatulac, was a 1^st year Far Eastern University student when he joined the Huk cause. He was already 34, married, with children. He joined, he said, because the government had failed to implement the Land Reform Code.  He earned his sobriquet “Ligaya” for the many favors and help done to farmers, which brought them happiness. For example, he passed the hat for them whene they could not pay their financial obligations. He also sought out materials for school buildings and volunteered his services free. However, Dimatulac resisted being called a “kumander” as he had been with the movement for just 6 months when he was captured and arrested for murder in 1970. Placed on Death Row, Dimatulac led a team of political prisoners in digging a tunnel at the Youth Rehabilitation Center (YRC) tunnel as a means of escape. After EDSA, he was released in 1986 after having spent 17 years in prison.

KUMANDER LINDA BIE (Silvestre Liwanag)

Silvestre Liwanag (b.1919) of Concepcion, Lubao trained under the Socialist Party of Jose Abad Santos in 1937 before joining the movement  in 1942, along with wife, Rosita Manuel. The bemoustached young Huk moved up in ranks quickly, and became a commander of squadron 18-B under Abelardo Dabu. Liwanag took the Huk name, “Linda Bie”, meaning ‘beautiful life’. Arrested by the Americans with whom he had fought side by side in fighting the Japanese, he unabashedly wept as he was disarmed and told that he was “an enemy of the U.S. and Philippine governments”. After the war, he succeeded Dabu and reorganized remaining troops nearly decimated in military encounters and merged them with his own squadrons, thus expanding his jurisdiction from Bataan-Zambales to southern Pampanga. Kumander Linda Bie was captured in Orion, Bataan, 3 years after the Communist Party and the HMB were outlawed in 1957.

KUMANDER PUSA (Ben Sanguyu)

The Huk kumander that Anthony Alonzo portrayed in the 1981 movie “Dakpin si…Pusa” was born Ben Sanguyu in real life. Known for his cat-like agility in combat and in elduing the military, Kumander Pusa headed one of the most-feared squadrons in Central Luzon. Government forces under Capt. Almazan caught up with him in Bamban, Tarlac where he was finally killed, along with 4 of his men.

KUMANDER SOL (Tomas F. Calma)

Kumander Sol was one of the highest-ranking officers of the Communist Party of the Philippines-Huk hierarchy, who held the position of a Squadron Commander. During the all-out offensive against the Huks initiated by Pres. Ramon Magsaysay, many of the Huk leaders were caught or killed, including Kumander Sol who perished in a skirmish in Candaba. This led to the arrest of CPP head Jesus Lava in Sampaloc in 1964, which dealt a big blow to the communist cause.

KUMANDER SUMULONG (Faustino del Mundo)
The Huk leader who exploited his power position to make lucrative financial gains--Faustino del Mundo --was the Head of the HMB financial committee, while his arch rival, Kumander Alibasbas, headed the military side. Sumulong had wanted to support Marcos’s presidential bid, while Alibasbas was pro-Macapagal. This difference led to the division of HMB into two factions in 1965. The situation was violently resolved with the killing  of Alibasbas. Kumander Sumulong stepped into power, and ran it Mafia-style, using Angeles as his headquarters. By 1967, Sumulong was the most influential Huk leader in central Luzon; mayors, governors and even Marcos sought him out for political support. Major businesses, had to shell out “protection money” which filled the coffers of the Huk movement. Politicians turned against each other, giving rise to liquidation squads,  ‘Beatles’  and ‘Monkees’. Sumulong’s business activities—which strayed from the original cause of the Huk movement, caused disillusionment to Bernabe Buscayno, which spurred him to form the New People’s Army. Sumulong was captured in Brgy, Amsic in September 1970. In 1982, Sumulong was meted a death penalty for the murder and kidnapping committed on barangay captain Marcial Miranda, but due to his age (he was 78), the sentence was commuted to reclusion perpetua.

BONUS! A list of Kumanders from the DANTE/ TARUC Camps.

SOURCES:

SINGSING MAGAZINE, 'BRAVEHEARTS: Kapampangan Rebels, Radicals and Renegades Who Changed Philippine History". Center for Kapampangan Studies. Vol. 6, No. 1.

Various SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE issues, 1961-1970