By Edwin Espejo
In slippers and tattered shoes
On callous foot and in shorts.
Wearing red with their hearts out.
In their hoarsest voices they shout.
No longer nameless faceless
They could not care less
They came to honor the man
Ka Parago, the peasant’s son
They could have carried his casket in the shiny black Cadillac. Instead they went for a flatbed truck.
In another time and space, few would dare attend his wake. Instead they came in droves and from the mountains they trekked.
They brought with them large pots and giant cauldrons. Their daughters and sons.
All with one singular purpose. To pay their last respects to the man they call Tatay – Leoncio Pitao who went by the nom de guerre Ka Parago.
Open defiance
An overcast Friday in Davao City was flaming red hot.
In unprecedented show of force and open defiance, supporters and sympathizers of the New People’s Army descended in the city, once the paradise and hell of urban partisan warfare.
Not since the early 1980s when the late Alexander Orcullo was laid to rest did a throng of Leftist activists attended a funeral march in Davao City.
But then again, none has ever been held for a slain New People’s Army commander in decades of armed revolution.
One cannot fault the supporters of the rebels.
Illustrious son of the revolution
After all, Leoncio Pitao a.k.a. Ka Parago headed the first ever battalion of the NPA. He also was head of the biggest and strongest regional command throughout the country with at least six sub-regional commands and two special operations groups.
His daring military exploits and long history in the revolution made him both an urban and rural legend. The NPA’s most illustrious and successful commander.
In turn, he also was the biggest target of the entire government security apparatus. But instead of feasting on unabashed communist sympathizers openly calling for armed revolution, the state’s security and armed apparatus chose to be at a safe distance.
When they finally got Ka Parago after 14 years of a massive manhunt operation, the military proclaimed a huge success and pronounced the ‘death of the revolution.’
With more than a handful wearing masks with Ka Parago’s face Friday, the military could now be dealing with more Paragos.
The activists and militants wanted to prove the military doomsayers entirely wrong in proclaiming the death of the revolution.
They brought Ka Parago’s remains at the ‘Gates of the Enemy’ to borrow from the title of a movie about a World War II Russian war hero.
In an emotionally charged funeral march, they brought Ka Parago’s hearse to the gates of the 10th Infantry Division in Panacan, Davao city – some 11 kilometers from the city-owned Davao Recreational Center (Almendras Gym) at Camp Catitipan (Police Regional Office 11) where his remains laid in state before heading back at the People’s Freedom Park at the heart of the city where they assembled for the final funeral march.
It could have been their rebel’s version of a state funeral as well.
Ka Parago led many long marches as a rebel commander throughout his 37 years in the armed struggle.
Friday was his last.
Pic: In an unprecedented show of force and defiance, some 10,000 sympathizers of the New People’s Army marched through the streets of Davao City Friday, July 10. Pic: Edwin Espejo
Asian Correspondent