We will remember Ka Lean: Youth Inspiration, Hero and Martyr — Concha Araneta

 

 

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines-Panay salutes and gives highest honor to our people’s martyr, Ka Lean. We are extending our condolences and sympathy to his family, friends, and former circles. He was martyred last June 29, 2020 because of ceaseless and intense military operations in Southern Panay.

A brave and joyful revolutionary, he selflessly offered his life to the oppressed. He volunteered to become a member of the New Peoples Army last June 2017 right after his 18th birthday.
Ka Lean had served hundreds upon hundreds of poor farmers dispossessed of land and denied of politico-economic justice. He is one of the red fighters engaged in the campaign against the Covid19 pandemic- reaching out to communities to render appropriate medical and economic interventions for the people. He served in various technical and political education efforts to benefit poor farmers. Together with other red fighters, Ka Lean mobilized the masses for improved farm production in anti-feudal campaigns, and forged community unity among them. Ka Lean served the people well.

Like many young martyrs, he is an inspiration to the youth to pursue the revolution for the establishment of the People’s Democratic Government. His willingness to empower and serve the poor stretched beyond his most comfortable spaces. He understood that the problems of the youth and the people are rooted on the inherent structural defects of our country. Ultimately, he denied the illusory bourgeois path and decisively participated in the armed struggle to build a better future.

Ka Lean, although unfamiliar with the experiences of unforgiving poverty and hardship, openly embraced the challenges of simple life and hard struggle in the revolution. He lived with the poor and shared with them their practical experiences. He offered his intellect, energy, creativity, and youth to the people. His selfless sacrifice is a motivation worth emulating by every educated nationalist youth.

The life of Ka Lean is an immortal example that provides an alternative perspective to the dominant bourgeois individualism and idealism that distorted the concepts of service and love of country in public education institutions. The revolutionary alternative remains an imperative for the youth to challenge the perpetuating systemic inequality and injustice.

The present unbearable semi-colonial and semi-feudal conditions of the Philippine society with its repressive education system offers no positive future for the youth. The revolution on the other hand, provides a clear path for a socialist future that will be enjoyed by the left-out, oppressed, and forgotten classes. This path is being materialized everyday by the revolution.

The death of Ka Lean might be a joy for the fascist and a ‘material’ for their anti-democratic agenda. The anticommunist criminals will use his death to demoralize his family, schoolmates, friends, and comrades. As with other people’s martyrs, his photos would be vandalized, misrepresented, and condemned by the enemy. But all of these would be expunged by the genuine narratives of his life as an activist and a revolutionary.

On this very dark time of our country where tyrants and anticommunist criminals rule in shrunken spaces of so-called democracy, the youth must directly take part in the struggle and path that Ka Lean took. This is the only decisive way to achieve justice for the people and all victims of the reactionary state’s crimes. Let us remember that Ka Lean died fighting those who protect the fascist establishment.

The Filipino people are proud to have Ka Lean. His revolutionary life is an inspiration to the young and forever will be immortalized in the annals of the Filipino people’s history.

Long live the revolution!
Long live the hope of our nation! Long live Ka Lean!
Youth, join the New People’s Army!

“Ang kamatayan ay nangyayari sa lahat, ngunit may mga kamatayan na mas may halaga kesa iba. Sa pagsulong ng pambansa-demokratikong rebolusyon, hindi maiiwasan na may mamatay at may mag-alay ng buhay. Ang mamatay na ipinaglalaban ang sambayanan, ay kahanga-hanga at kagalang-galang. Wala nang may mas makabuluhang kamatayan kundi ang mamatay na pinaglilingkuran ang sambayanan. Ang sakripisyo at kahirapan ay normal sa sinumang umaasam ng pagbabago sa lipunan.”
-Ka Lean, circa 2017

We will remember Ka Lean: Youth Inspiration, Hero and Martyr -- Concha Araneta