Crisis of Revolutionary Leadership: Martial Law and the Communist Parties of the Philippines, 1959–1974 By Joseph Paul Scalice A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in South and Southeast Asian Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in Charge: Associate Professor Jerey Hadler, Chair Professor Peter Zinoman Professor Andrew Barshay Summer 2017 Crisis of Revolutionary Leadership: Martial Law and the Communist Parties of the Philippines, 1957-1974 Copyright 2017 by Joseph Paul Scalice 1 Abstract Crisis of Revolutionary Leadership: Martial Law and the Communist Parties of the Philippines, 1959–1974 by Joseph Paul Scalice Doctor of Philosophy in South and Southeast Asian Studies University of California, Berkeley Associate Professor Jerey Hadler, Chair In 1967 the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (pkp) split in two. Within two years a second party – the Communist Party of the Philippines (cpp) – had been founded. In this work I argue that it was the political program of Stalinism, embodied in both parties through three basic principles – socialism in one country, the two-stage theory of revolution, and the bloc of four classes – that determined the fate of political struggles in the Philippines in the late 1960s and early 1970s and facilitated Marcos’ declaration of Martial Law in September 1972. I argue that the split in the Communist Party of the Philippines was the direct expression of the Sino-Soviet split in global Stalinism. The impact of this geopolitical split arrived late in the Philippines because it was initially refracted through Jakarta. It was in the wake of the massacre of the Indonesian Commu- nist Party in 1965-66 that the pkp sought out new contacts with International Communism and in so doing were compelled to take sides in the raging dispute between Moscow and Beijing. On the basis of their common program of Stalinism, both parties in the wake of their split sought to form alliances with sections of the ruling class. The pro-Moscow party allied with Marcos, who was pursuing ties with Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. They facilitated and supported his declaration of Martial Law, murdering the members of the party who opposed this position. The pro-Beijing party responded by channeling the massive social unrest of this period behind the leadership of Marcos’ political rivals. When Marcos declared martial law and arrested his rivals, the movement which had been subordinated to them died. The cpp channeled all residual mass opposition into the armed struggle in the countryside. I based my analysis on the copious documentary record produced by the cpp, pkp and their front organizations at the time, which I correlated carefully with contemporary newspaper accounts. Using this material, I have been able to trace the day-to-day vicissitudes in the political line of the party and the rhetoric used to justify it. On this basis I document that the one unaltered thread woven throughout the entire immense tangle of shifting political tactics and alliances was the program of Stalinism. i All talk to the eect that historical conditions have not yet “ripened” for socialism is the product of ignorance or conscious deception. The objective prerequisites for the proletarian revolution have not only “ripened”; they have begun to get somewhat rotten. Without a socialist revolution, in the next historical period at that, a catastrophe threatens the whole culture of mankind. The turn is now to the proletariat, i.e., chiey to its revolutionary vanguard. The historical crisis of mankind is reduced to the crisis of the revolutionary leadership. — Leon Trotsky, The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International ii Contents Contents ii List of Figures vi List of Tables viii Preface ix Note on Translation and Orthography xi Abbreviations xii 1 Introduction 2 2 Socialism in Two Countries 13 2.1 Stalinism ....................................................... 13 2.2 The Sino-Soviet Split ......................................... 32 3 Setting the Stage 90 4 Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (pkp) 93 5 Joma 103 6 Ignacio Lacsina 124 7 The Executive Committee 136 8 Merger 158 9 The 1963 Election and the Port Strike 177 10 Peddling Macapagal 197 11 Kabataang Makabayan 215 12 Backing Marcos 226 13 Sumulong, Alibasbas, and Dante 240 14 Catastrophe in Indonesia 249 15 Troops to Vietnam, Sison to China 261 16 October 24 and the Scramble for International Ties 281 17 Expulsion 299 18 Split in the Front Organizations 320 iii 19 Maneuvering 351 20 Communist Party of the Philippines (cpp) 364 21 New People’s Army (npa) 374 22 The First Plenum 387 23 Student Power 396 24 The 1969 Election 416 25 Cacique Conspiracies 428 26 The First Quarter Storm 442 26.1 January ......................................................... 444 26.2 February........................................................ 460 26.3 March ........................................................... 473 27 The Wake of the Storm 480 28 Philippine Society and Revolution 493 29 Consolidation and Regrouping 512 30 Anticipation 545 31 The Diliman Commune 557 32 The Dispute over Feudalism 582 33 Fragmentation of Labor 591 34 May Day Massacre 614 35 Mudslinging and Obloquy 623 36 Campus Elections 640 37 The Bombing of Plaza Miranda 659 38 The Writ Suspended and the 1971 Election 673 39 Diplomacy and Dispute 696 40 Winning over the ‘Middle Forces’ 712 41 The Declaration 736 42 The cpp: Utterly Unprepared 757 43 The pkp: Endorsing Martial Law 780 44 Mao embraces Marcos 805 45 Aftermath 818 Bibliography 821 Acronyms 860 Glossary 870 Extant issues of Ang Bayan, 1969-1975 872 Pseudonyms 875 Name Index 879 iv List of Figures 4.1 William and Celia Pomeroy, 1952 ........................................ 94 5.1 Sison’s parents in Cabugao ............................................... 104 5.2 Sison-De Lima Wedding, January 1960.................................. 107 6.1 Ignacio Lacsina. ............................................................ 131 7.1 Harry Stonehill.............................................................. 138 7.2 Roberto Oca.................................................................. 147 8.1 lm logo ....................................................................... 162 9.1 Police arrest striking port workers ...................................... 189 11.1 Friends and Enemies ....................................................... 219 15.1 Sison, Tañada and the Lavas. km (1966) ................................. 265 16.1 Teodosio Lansang........................................................... 291 19.1 km leadership, soon to be the leadership of the cpp .................. 355 21.1 Masthead of Ang Bayan ................................................... 383 21.2 A page from a comic to recruit child soldiers to the npa............. 385 26.1 Arrests during the Agnew protest ....................................... 443 26.2 Police beat huddled protesters. January 26 ............................. 455 27.1 Nilo Tayag ................................................................... 485 28.1 PSR in the Collegian........................................................ 494 29.1 makibaka protests a beauty pageant ................................... 514 31.1 Crude anti-barricade propaganda ........................................ 562 31.2 Diliman Commune grati ................................................ 577 32.1 The cpp–pkp split depicted in APL ...................................... 587 33.1 Carlos del Rosario .......................................................... 595 33.2 Leto Villar.................................................................... 608 34.1 Crispin Tagamolila ......................................................... 615 34.2 Anti-Chinese grati from a picket line ................................. 618 35.1 Caricature of Nemenzo .................................................... 627 35.2 km attacks the Lava group ............................................... 636 36.1 Masthead of Ang Malaya. ................................................ 641 37.1 The bombing of Plaza Miranda........................................... 660 38.1 Violence in Caloocan ...................................................... 686 v 38.2 Gary Olivar .................................................................. 690 40.1 ablppl leaet ................................................................ 722 41.1 Karagatan arms cache captured by the military ....................... 740 42.1 Cafeteria Protest ............................................................ 765 44.1 Mao greets Imelda in Wuhan ............................................. 807 vi List of Tables 23.1 up Student Council Chairs, 1965-72 ...................................... 410 40.1 Collegian editors, 1969-72.................................................. 715 vii Preface There are a great many people to whom I owe a debt of thanks. Pride of place in a work so intimately tied to archival materials must go to librarians. Throughout my work I was assisted greatly by the marvelous sta of librari- ans at UC Berkeley. In particular, I am grateful to the tireless and friendly help which I received from Rebecca Darby in the Newspaper and Microforms library; the entire sta at both the Interlibrary Services and North Regional Facility; and Virginia Shih of the South/Southeast Asia Library. A scholar could not ask for better help than that which they provided. Even more,