NDF: Red salute to Ka Wendell M. Gumban, communist, Red fighter, UP alumnus

Propaganda statement posted to the National Democratic Front Website (Aug 2): Red salute to Ka Wendell M. Gumban, communist, Red fighter, UP alumnus 

Press Statement | Rubi del Mundo, Spokesperson, National Democratic Front of the Philippines, Southern Mindanao Region

The National Democratic Front in Southern Mindanao gives its highest honors to Wendell “Ka Joaquin” M. Gumban, communist, Red Army officer and University of the Philippines alumnus who was martyred along with Sario “Ka Glen” Mabanding during a firefight against the 66th Infantry Battalion-AFP on July 23 in Sitio Pong-pong, Brgy. Andap, New Bataan, Compostela Valley.

Ka Joaquin, 30, joined the national democratic movement as a member of the Kabataang Makabayan during his college days at the University of the Philippines in Diliman. He was recruited to the Communist Party of the Philippines shortly after and became the secretary of the Party organ that consolidated the Philippine Collegian, UP’s student publication. Later, he became a member of the leading Party organ assigned in the university. In 2010, he was tasked to do full-time work in the trade union movement before joining the New People’s Army in Mindanao in late 2011.

He became a valuable part of the Party’s consolidation work in the Red bases and expansion work in the guerilla zone. As a political instructor of an NPA unit, he contributed to the expansion of guerrilla units and political consolidation of Red fighters.

As a communist, Ka Joaquin wrestled with his petty bourgeois origin and struggled to live in the spirit of simple living and hard struggle. He overcame the limitations of his frail frame, weak eyesight, even an unfamiliar dialect, to serve the Lumads and peasants of Southern Mindanao. Brilliant and daring, Ka Joaquin is an inspiration to the intellectual youth. He chose not the life of comfort that he could have otherwise led, but the life of selfless service and sacrifice at the bosom of people’s war.

The revolutionary forces in the region, the Red Army and the Communist Party celebrate the life of Ka Joaquin for his significant contribution to the people’s war and for his unwavering belief that a youthful intellectual’s place—as are all exploited classes in our society—is in the revolution.

http://www.ndfp.org/red-salute-ka-wendell-m-gumban-communist-red-fighter-alumnus/