UNPOPULAR OPINION | Anakbayan glorifying NPA martyrs is getting tired

Anakbayan, again, paints fallen NPA rebels and known CPP figures as “heroes of the people.” Yet when called out for supporting terrorism, they accuse critics of “red-tagging,” and deny any organizational link to the underground movement. The contradiction is both glaring and confusing. And frankly, it’s getting tiresome.

Unpopular opinion: At this point, who do they think they are fooling exactly?

Anakbayan posted a social media card to celebrate National Heroes Day post, but instead of honoring Filipinos who dedicated their lives to building the nation — soldiers, teachers, workers, health frontliners, and OFWs — Anakbayan chose to “pay tribute” to NPA martyrs like Jeremei “Ka Ash” Garcia, Nikka “Ka Chai” Dela Cruz, Azase “Ka Mabel” Galang, Jian Markus “Ka Reb” Tayco, and Dee “Ka Dahlia” Supelanas. Never mind that all of these fallen youths also, like many Anakbayan leaders in history, vehemently denounced being “red-tagged” when they were still Anakbayan members.

According to Anakbayan, these youths “used their lives to achieve a truly free society — the path of the national democratic struggle.” They even dared to place them in the same historical lineage as the Katipunan and the HUKBALAHAP.

Similarly, the Anakbayan chapter in Pasay posted a quote from no less than CPP founder Jose Maria Sison himself, saying: “Whatever is the manner of death, there is the common denominator: A hero serves the people to his very last breath.” By Anakbayan’s logic, even Sison, helping perpetuate the longest-running communist insurgency in Asia that has taken the lives of thousands of Filipinos, fits their definition of being a “hero.”

If Anakbayan insists it is not a front of the CPP-NPA, why does it consistently glorify the very individuals who carried out and died for the armed revolution? To praise them as martyrs is to endorse not just their personal sacrifices, but the violent ideology they fought for. This is where Anakbayan’s duplicity becomes clear. They deny supporting the armed struggle, but for some bewildering reason, they sanctify those who lived and died by it.

Perhaps for Anakbayan, anyone who defies a system, especially when they use violent force, is considered a hero. Heroism, however, is not defined by defiance alone. It is defined by the purpose of that defiance. Andres Bonifacio fought to liberate the nation from Spanish colonizers. Jose Rizal wrote to awaken Filipinos to freedom and dignity.

The NPA, meanwhile, has waged war not against colonizers, but against fellow Filipinos, leaving behind a bloody trail of ambushes, landmines, and recruitment of minors. To call these rebels “heroes” is to erase the suffering of countless civilians caught in the crossfire of an outdated insurgency.

So what message is Anakbayan really sending to its young followers? Many of their recruits are students. They are intellectuals, idealistic, restless, yearning for change. Instead of channeling this energy into constructive nation-building, Anakbayan points them toward the armed struggle. They present fallen rebels as role models, setting up a dangerous narrative that the highest form of service to the people is to take up arms, die in battle, and be remembered as a martyr.

National Heroes Day is meant to remind us of sacrifices that unite, not divide, our people. It is meant to honor those who gave their lives for peace, freedom, and development, not those who prolonged conflict and bloodshed. By using the commemoration to glorify NPA martyrs and the legacy of Joma Sison, Anakbayan (and to be sure, the rest of the national democratic youth organizations) exposes what we have known and been saying all along— it is deeply tied to the armed insurgency of the CPP-NPA-NDFP.