Luis Taruc
| Luis Taruc | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | June 21, 1913 San Luis, Pampanga, Philippine Islands |
| Died | May 4, 2005 (aged 91) Quezon City, Philippines |
| Other names | Alipato Pop Salvador Huk Supremo |
| Occupation | General Secretary of the Socialist Party of the Philippines, military leader of the United Front |
| Known for | leadership of the Hukbalahap |
Luis Taruc (June 21, 1913 – May 4, 2005) was a Filipino political figure and insurgent during the agrarian unrest of the 1930s until the end of the Cold War. He was the leader of the Hukbalahap or Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon group between 1942 and 1950. His involvement with the movement came after his initiation to the problems of agrarian Filipinos when he was a student in the early 1930s. During World War II, Taruc led the Hukbalahap in guerrilla operations against the Japanese occupiers of the Philippines.
He became aware of the unjust situation of tenant farmers and the poor in 1935, and decided to leave his haberdashery business to his wife so he could help, protect and serve the poor, maltreated and suffering peasants. Influenced by his idol socialist 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, Union of Peasant Workers) and in 1938, the "Partido Socialista." 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.
Luis Mangalus Taruc was born of peasant stock in the barrio of Santa Monica, township of San Luis, Pampanga on 21 June 1913. Luis states, "In my youth, the Christian faith dominated my spiritual life. But the landlord dominated the material life I knew." At age eight, Luis attended the public school in San Miguel, Bulacan. At fifteen, he attended high school in Tarlac City. He attended to the University of Manila for two years (June 1932–December 1934), studying medicine and law, but no longer able to afford the expenses, returned to Batasan without getting a degree to set up a tailor shop with his brother. As a teen he was inspired by the stories of the Katipuneros who had fought for independence and for agrarian reform against Spain. Certain people within his home village and province came to regard him as the incarnation of the prominent Katipunan leader Felipe Salvador. He was influenced by Pedro Abad Santos, a Marxist, whom Luis regarded as a true socialist. In June 1935, he married Feliciana Bernabe, and his son Romeo was born in March 1936.Before the end of 1935, he joined Santos as a full-time organizer of the Socialist Party of the Philippines, which numbered a few hundred members and several thousand sympathizers. His wife died in Dec. 1938, suffering from goiter and anemia. 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 peasanats' unions. Enna died of septicemia and diabetes on 8 March 1946. Luis later married Gregoria Calma (Liza). She was killed by government soldiers on 11 April 1952.
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