On June 21, 1913, Luis Taruc was born in Pampanga. A devout Christian who believed that he became "born again" of the people, Taruc regards himself as one of the founding members of the Partido Sosyalista ng Pilipinas when, during his high school years, fellow Kapampangan Pedro Abad Santos invited him to join the said organization. Taruc had professed multiple times to be a "Christian Democratic Socialist", not a communist, rejecting the idea of aligning with Russian Bolshevism, and Chinese Maoism, as well as predating so-called "democratic socialists" which found their provenance from the 1970s.
In the 1930s, when the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP-1930) merged with the socialists, Abad Santos was elected vice chairman while Crisanto Evangelista, returning from exile, was elected chairman of the new organization. It was only a matter of time before Taruc's divorce with the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) and the Popular Front. Urged as early as 1941 by Abad Santos to organize against a coming Japanese threat, Taruc became one of the founders of the Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon (Hukbalahap) by March 1942, of which he became its military department chairman (Supremo). Vicente Lava, meanwhile, was elected their general secretary.
Taruc's attitude towards communism showed during the Second World War, when Huks (as members of the Hukbalahap were also called) fought not only Japanese and Americans alike, but also fellow Filipinos. Even among American circles, he was regarded as "more socialist than pure communist." Taking in mind that the Soviet Union was accepted by the Allied Powers as a partner against the Axis, Taruc also accepted communists in their ranks, but only for the purpose of fighting "fascism."
True enough, Huk membership appeared to represent a broad base of the population, without necessarily having to be communist. In Taruc's own estimate, he placed communist members to be at "two percent" of their entire organization. Meanwhile, one estimate placed the Hukbalahap fighting strength at around 20,000, making it one of the more organized guerrilla forces in the entire Philippines.
Taruc also disagreed with communist leaders among the Hukbalahap in terms of overall strategy, becoming as popular as being "anti-American" as he was "anti-Japanese" in his activities, even as the guerrilla group was named to be an armed force against Japan. A determined Japanese offensive against Huk operations at Arayat in September 1942 greatly affected Taruc's conduct of guerrilla warfare. Besides improving their intelligence network, Taruc further divided his units into smaller groups called "Barrio United Defense Corps."
During the Allied liberation of the Philippines in the period 1944-1945, Huks took the opportunity of having their own version, freeing towns and establishing order as they went. As for the people of these towns, it apparently mattered little who got first to liberate them than when their freedoms were restored.
After the war, the Hukbalahap was formally dissolved and turned into a Veterans' Association with Casto Alejandrino as chairman. The communist segment, meanwhile, was quite eager to participate in the 1946 elections carrying the banner of the once outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines. This became the "Democratic Alliance", of which Taruc became a minority member. Arguing to drop any hint of communist ideology in the campaign, he believed that they could win seats in the postwar Filipino government by getting to the heart of issues such as agrarian reform and economic prosperity. Instead, Taruc was overshadowed by the communist leaders.
Enjoying the confidence of incumbent President Sergio Osmeña, Sr., who in releasing Taruc and other Huk leaders from American prisons earned criticism from anti-communist groups, Taruc and five others were elected to the House of Representatives. Unfortunately for them, the diplomatic Osmeña was defeated with a margin of 200,000 votes by Liberal Party candidate Manuel Roxas. Pledging to end the Huk threat "in 60 days," the Roxas administration arranged for the removal of Democratic Alliance representatives by accusing them of electoral fraud and terrorism.
Taruc would later lament that while in Japan, the country he fought against during the Pacific War, socialists gained a significant role in government (the 1947 Japanese elections saw the Japan Socialist Party win 143 of 468 seats in the Diet), the Philippines could not even lift their restrictions against socialist candidates.
Shunned by the independent Filipino government, Taruc reorganized the Huk movement into the Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan (HMB). Despite attempts to deescalate the conflict, including Taruc's acceptance of amnesty from President Elpidio Quirino on his birthday (June 21, 1948), the HMB threat continued until Taruc's unconditional surrender on May 17, 1954, during the administration of Ramon Magsaysay, himself a wartime guerrilla. Eventually, Taruc was given a life sentence.
Teodoro M. Locsin described Taruc in a May 1949 article as follows: "Seeing Taruc for the first time, I thought he was a government clerk, with some petty complaint, until he gave his name. He was humbled, unobtrusive; he seemed like a man other men usually pushed around. He talked softly, in a low voice."
On September 10, 1968, President Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. granted clemency for Taruc and Tausug freedom fighter Hadji Kamlon, among other prisoners. While later opposed to the imposition of Martial Law, Taruc nonetheless commended the reforms undertaken by the Marcos administration: "By 1972, Marcos declaring martial law practically adopted all what I had been fighting for since 1932." He also became a consultant on agrarian reform to Secretary Conrado Estrella. In his later years, Taruc would blame the "dogma" of communists for the failure of the armed movement.
Taruc died on May 4, 2005, convinced of his stand that he was "Filipino first, socialist second." The Luis Taruc Freedom Park in San Luis, Pampanga was erected in his honor. Learn more about the movement:
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