Communist Party of the Philippines
October 15, 2011
Read also in Pilipino
Today, the Filipino people usher Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal into their Hall of Heroes and Martyrs. Today they engrave Ka Roger’s name onto the granite wall next to those of such great working class heroes as Andres Bonifacio, Macario Sakay, Crisanto Evangelista, Amado V. Hernandez, Felixberto Olalia, Crispin Beltran and many others.
Like them, Ka Roger led a full life of service to the Filipino peasants, workers and other ordinary people and helped in advancing their revolutionary struggle for national and social liberation.
While Ka Roger always insisted that he was simply an ordinary people’s servant and fighter, he will always be remembered by the Filipino people for his exceptional work as their public advocate, serving as the spokesman of the Communist Party of the Philippines, the face and voice of their resistance against oppression and exploitation and their struggle to break free from feudal bondage and imperialist subjection.
He was indefatigable in advancing the rights of the peasantry for land, in fighting for the rights of the minority people, in upholding the rights of women, in demanding higher wages, in pushing for the cause of the students, youth and other democratic sectors, in exposing and denouncing military fascist abuses, in defending the environment against despoliation by foreign mining and logging companies and in asserting national sovereignty against US political and military intervention and economic domination.
Like our other heroes and martyrs, Ka Roger’s life story will forever inspire us to rebel against the rotten ruling system that breeds oppressors and exploiters. His life of selfless service to the people stands in contrast to the imperialist-inspired culture of individualism that leads to apathy and social paralysis.
In death as in life, Ka Roger’s voice reverberates across the archiepelago with his call for mass struggles and revolutionary armed resistance. His voice will continue to resonate among the Filipino people because he spoke the truth about the Filipino people’s oppression and exploitation and about their aspirations to put an end to their life of hardship, poverty and hunger.
Even as we usher Ka Roger into the Hall of Heroes and Martyrs, millions of Filipinos continue to resist and fight to achieve freedom from oppression and exploitation and genuine national liberation. They form part of the continuum of revolutionary struggle that has set its sights on overthrowing the corrupt, the abusers of power, the fascist criminals, the oppressors and exploiters. Soon, the workers, peasants and other ordinary people for whom Ka Roger fought for will stand proudly as their own heroes as they write their history of freedom and liberation.
