THE National Task Force to end Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) called National Democratic Front (NDF) leader Luis Jalandoni, who passed away last Saturday, a “symbol of a violent ideology.”
NTF-ELCAC executive director Ernesto Torres Jr. made the statement as he extended the task force’s condolences to the family of Jalandoni, who died in the Netherlands at the age of 90.
“Even as we recognize the grief of those who knew him, we owe the Filipino people honesty,” said Torres in a statement, referring to Jalandoni, a member of the NDF National Executive Council.
A former Catholic priest, Jalandoni previously served as chairman of the NFP panel that negoti-ated peace with the government.
“Luis Jalandoni was not a hero. He was a symbol of a violent ideology that inflicted incalculable damage on this nation,” said Torres.
The task force said that Jalandoni, as an NDF negotiator, presided over “dialogues that were masqueraded as peacemaking,” noting that the New People’s Army continued to recruit minors, ambushed government troops and conducted extortion activities.
“These so-called peace talks were not bridges to peace. They were Trojan horses used to buy time, gain legitimacy, and give cover to insurgent operations. Jalandoni was not a man of peace, but a tactician of war,” said Torres.
The task force said Jalandoni had long been detached from the “ground realities” concerning the Communist Party of the Philippines, the NPA and the NDF.
It said Jalandoni’s exile in the Netherlands “afforded him safety and comfort, while radicalized youth perished in remote outposts and dense forests—many unaware that the leaders they revered had long abandoned the frontlines for foreign asylum.”
“Let us not allow nostalgia to blind us to the truth,” said Torres.
“Jalandoni’s legacy is not one of courage, but of ideological betrayal—of the youth, the poor, and the communities he claimed to serve. He left the battlefields behind and watched from afar as others bled for his beliefs,” said Torres.
Torres said that with the death of Jalandoni, along with the earlier demise of communist leaders Jose Maria Sison and Fidel Agcaoili, “we are not witnessing the end of a revolution, but the fad-ing of a myth.”
“We will not honor the architect of protracted war. We will honor those who paid the price for it,” said Torres, referring to Jalandoni.
