Ka Bert often told me with pride that he became the secretary of a shoesmiths’ union at the age of 17 and gained experience in the working class struggle. He became the president of his union in 1925-40 and militantly fought for the eight-hour workday, instead of the existing 12-hour (or more) workday then.
In 1938, under the direction of Crisanto Evangelista and KAP, Ka Bert was one among those who led the campaign to build the Collective Labor Movement (CLM) and broaden the unity of trade unions against the danger of fascism and war. The Manila Labor Council was later established with Ka Bert as secretary-general. This was a demonstration of his determination to build a broad unity of the working class through united front policy and tactics.
He was in the central leadership of the KAP in 1939-40. Humbly and with amusement, Ka Bert told me that despite his successes as a worker-leader and Ka Crisanto Evangelista’s recognition of his keenness, the latter refused to recruit him into the Communist Party until he he had overcome his weaknesses. But those weaknesses were puny compared to the greatness he attained.
When World War II broke out, Ka Bert became a member of the Communist Party and was appointed secretary of the Manila-Rizal Bureau. He became a Hukbalahap commander in the Manila-Rizal region. He was the Ka Diego, who arrested Guillermo Capadocia whom the the Japanese invaders released to contact and deliver the message to the movement that nothing untoward would happen to Crisanto Evangelista and Pedro Abad Santos so long as the movement would not resist occupation. Capadocia was brought to Central Luzon and meted out disciplinary action and assigned the task of being the cook of Wa Chi.
It was also Ka Bert who directed Vicente Lava’s transfer from the Manila-Rizal region (particularly Tanay, Rizal) to Mt. Arayat. With the martyrdom of Crisanto Evangelista, Lava replaced him as the leader of the Party. When Lava implemented the policy of “retreat for defense”, Ka Bert was among the cadres who opposed and defied this, so that he was meted a disciplinary action until the policy was proven erroneous.
When the war ended, Ka Bert became one of the key founders of the Congress of Labor Organizations (CLO). He faithfully and efficiently served the CLO until he assailed the adventurist line of Jose Lava and was expelled from the Party. He was one of the leaders who broke away from the CLO and established the Katipunan ng Kaisahang Manggagawa (KKM or Confederation of Workers’ Unity) on December 30, 1948 and was elected its president.
In 1950, he tried but failed to establish the Council of Trade Unions in the Philippines. In 1951, the government crushed the CLO and arrested Ka Bert on charges of rebellion, despite his opposition to the adventurist line of Jose Lava, expulsion from the Party and CLO and pursuance of alliance work among the ranks of the workers and in the legal struggle for workers’ rights and welfare.
In 1954, he founded the Confederation of Labor of the Philippines (CLP) of which he became the chairman. He later established the National Federation of Labor Unions (NAFLU) in May 1957. In the legal struggle, he boldly and sharply fought against the oppression and exploitation of the toiling masses. He vigorously pushed for reforms in favor of the workers and peasants.
In 1959, he tried anew to unify the workers’ movement in a single alliance. His efforts as well as those of other comrades paved the way for the establishment of the Katipunan ng Manggagawang Pilipino (KMP or Confederation of Filipino Workers) and he became its vice-president. However, the KMP lasted only until 1963.
Our Time
Now, let me share with you my direct association with Ka Bert from 1962–68, a time when we frequently saw each other. In the years that followed, until 1977, we were in contact through other comrades. This period was a vital chapter in the country’s history.
This period covers the resurgence of the anti-imperialist and antifeudal movement in the entire 1960s from severe destruction and intense reaction in the 1950s, followed by the imposition of fascist dictatorship in our country in 1972 and the unrelenting struggle against that monster.
In the 2nd half of 1962, upon my return from Indonesia, I was decided on joining the labor movement. I became friends first with Ignacio Lacsina, president of the National Association of Trade Unions (NATU). Soon, he introduced me to Ka Bert. We delved on such issues as US imperialism and the local reactionary class and the struggle of the toiling masses and the youth against these .
In 1963, major federations and independent unions founded the Lapiang Manggagawa (LM or Workers’ Association). Yellow unions and federations were excluded. Cipriano Cid, president of the Philippine Association of Free Labor Unions (PAFLU) was elected president of Lapiang Manggagawa. Roberto Oca was vice-president. Oca was later expelled from the asociation because of his arbitrary use of name of the KMP for pushing his personal interest.
In the reorganization of LM, Cid remained as president, Ka Bert replaced Oca as first vice-president and Lacsina was the secretary-general. I was appointed vice-president for education with the task of organizing the research and education department, conducting seminars and coming out with news and press releases.
Ka Bert and I became friends in the course of LM meetings, other meetings in the office of NATU or NAFLU, conferences of the Malayang Samahang Magsasaka (MASAKA or Free Association of Peasants) in the provinces and of course, in protest rallies. I noticed that he was pleased with the primer (question-and-answer pamphlet) I prepared for LM on Macapagal’s agricultural “land reform” code. During that period, Ka Bert was already busy establishing and running MASAKA.
I had just joined the Communist Party of the Philippines in December 1962 when I was integrated into its newly-established executive committee and was tasked as a Party cadre to get involved in MASAKA in 1963. Thus, I became even closer to Ka Bert and other peasant leaders like Domingo Castro, Felicisimo Macapagal, Modesto Reyes and Simplicio Paraiso.
The Party’s executive committee tasked me to talk with the most responsible cadres of MASAKA regarding the entry into MASAKA of a peasant organization based in Bulacan. I was also assigned to give a refresher course on Marxism-Leninism to the veteran cadres in the central leadership of MASAKA.
Before giving the course, which Ka Bert attended, someone told me that I must memorize the exact definition of terms in Stalin’s Foundations of Leninism because Ka Bert knew these by heart and would surely test me my knowledge of these. Supposedly Ka Bert disliked definitions that were not precise.
Indeed it was fair warning. At the very first session, Ka Bert asked me for the definition of terms in the subject matter. And I did pass Ka Bert’s test. From then on, I sensed that he liked me and had a lot of confidence in me, at least book or textual knowledge.
Ka Bert was without arrogance, especially to those who were younger than him and newly recruited into the revolutionary movement. He knew how to deal with the youth and he was wont to boost their morale. He was full of stories of his youth. The only thing he could not tolerate was brazen line-deviation and lack of respect.
We were in agreement with regard to the situation and problems of the Filipino people, the history of the Party, the revolutionary role of the working class, criticisizing the Right and Left opportunist lines of the Lavas, strategy and tactics and the correct relationship of the armed struggle and the united front and the relationship of the legal and illegal struggle.
Within Lapiang Manggagawa, Ka Bert firmly held on to the patriotic and progressive position of the revolutionary proletariat. Under his leadership, NAFLU always sent delegations to seminars and protest actions held under the banner of LM. He readily agreed to the establishment of the youth department of LM and the establishment of the Kabataang Makabayan (KM; Patriotic Youth) as a comprehensive youth organization in 1964.
Almost all throughout our association, we agreed on basic decisions. Thus, we upheld the same basic line in various organizations: in the LM since 1963, in the Movement for the Advancement of Nationalism or MAN since 1966 and in the Socialist Party of the Philippines since 1967.
One occasion I hold dear was the celebration of the 64th anniversary of the Union de Impresores de Filipinas (UIF) in 1966. This was the union that served as a base for Ka Crisanto Evangelista and it had an illustrious history. The occasion was significant because it was here where I presented the history of the Philippine labor movement. At this occasion we shared table of honor with UIF President Juan J. Cruz, CLO President Amado V. Hernandez and LM Vice-president Ka Bert. Ka Chabeng (Ka Bert’s wife) and Ka Julie (my wife).
Ka Bert was delighted when he learned that the Party was conducting a rectification movement against the wrong line of the Lavas since 1942 and also against the gangster clique of Taruc and Sumulong. He was even more delighted when he learned that the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) would be re-established under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought.
Continuing Links
Ka Bert wholeheartedly accepted my decision to go underground in December 1968. We maintained our links through Ka Charlie del Rosario until the latter’s involuntary disappearance in 1971, and afterwards through other comrades.
Even after the split in MASAKA in 1969, the group that remained with Ka Bert’s camp aligned itself with the peasant movement under the re-established CPP leadership. When KASAMA and PAKMAP were founded as progressive workers’ federations, they maintained good relations with NAFLU despite their struggle with NATU on various issues.
Before I was captured on November 10, 1977, I was supposed to meet Ka Bert in Pangasinan on November 12. We intended to talk about the establishment of a broad workers’ alliance and how to raise to a new and higher level the more than 300 workers’ strikes that occurred from October 1974 to January 1975.
I planned to consult Ka Bert because he possessed the broadest and richest experience in alliance work in the labor sector. He was the most knowledgeable and most tested leader in the face of grave risks to life and liberty. He did not cower upon arrest and detention in 1972. I thought that he was the right person to lead a workers’ alliance.
From 1975, I reckoned that in the last years of the 1970s, the workers would rise and surpass the level reached by the youth movement in the First Quarter Storm of 1970. But this did not happen as the Party in the Manila-Rizal region was wracked by controversy over the issue of boycotting the reactionary elections in 1978.
However, with conditions ripe and through the ability, courage and fervor of the comrades in the workers’ movement Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) was established in 1980 under the leadership of Ka Bert as chairman. And in the face of worsening crisis, oppression and repression by the fascist dictatorship, the National Coalition for the Protection of Workers’ Rights (NCPWR) was established.
As early as 1980, the Marcos fascist regime had grown desperate due to the decline in the national income from the export of primary products and in foreign borrowing.. In the period of 1980-82, the regime became even more desperate and repressive despite the fake lifting of martial law (ML). The toiling masses fought even more. The workers’ strike movementspread more widely. The people’s war in the countryside intensified.
The fascist regime could not tolerate the growing workers movement and Ka Bert’s severe criticism of what he called the hocus-pocus lifting of martial law. On August 13, 1983, Ka Bert and about 60 leaders of the Kilusang Mayo Uno were arrested. Through the white terror of August 13, the enemy attempted to paralyze if not destroy the KMU and the labor movement.
Because of the hardships he suffered under detention at the hands of the enemy, including being made to sleep on cold cement floor, Ka Bert’s rheumatic heart condition recurred after several decades being overcome through body building exercises. His health continued to deteriorate until he died on December 4, 1983. Ka Bert became a martyr because he indefatigably, selflessly and fearlessly championed the cause of the working class and the Filipino people.
Once, Ka Bert told me of his wish to die in the battlefield rather in a sickbed. While this was not realized to the detail, in essence his wish to die serving his class and his people in the course of the struggle was fulfilled.
Ka Bert had a dream that he repeatedly recounted to me in the 1960s, a time when only small numbers attended our protest actions and only 20,000 was the biggest number various demonstrations achieved by a combination of federations and unions under LM, peasants under MASAKA and KM in 1965. Ka Bert said it would be a great fulfillment of his life’s mission when Araneta Coliseum and Plaza Miranda would be filled with protesting workers.
His dream came true before he died. Before the end of October in 1983, big numbers of workers under the banner of KMU joined mass actions under the framework of a broad united front against the Marcos fascist dictatorship.
Eventually, KMU became the biggest force in the mass actions in Metro Manila and other cities against the fascist regime. The number of protesting workers in the streets surpassed severalfold the capacity of Plaza Miranda or Araneta Coliseum. KMU was also the biggest force that besieged Malacanang Palace when Marcos was booted out of power on February 25, 1986.
Even in the 1960s, Ka Bert wanted to write, or narrate for someone to write, his experience in the labor movement. But this did not see the light, as Ka Bert had always been very busy with daily work.
Today, there should be a definite project to seriously study and document Ka Bert’s rich experience in struggle. It should be comprehensive and in-depth. It should be done while the people who knew him are still alive and can identify the events and documents that need be sourced by the researcher and writer in this project.
We all want to preserve the brilliant example and inspiration from Ka Bert. KMU is his living monument. KMU should be expanded and strengthened relentlessly.
Thank you very much!
