PKP-1930
Published: 2018;
Source: PKP-1930 Website;
Markup: Simoun Magsalin;
Copyright: No specific copyrights.
August 26, 1930 (the 34th Anniversary of the “Cry of Balintawak”) — Founding of the PKP-1930 at the “Templo del Trabajo,” Padre Rada St., Tondo, Manila.
Note: On August 25, 1930, 60 delegates representing the trade unions and peasant organizations affiliated with the Katipunan ng mga Anakpawis sa Pilipinas (KAP, or the Proletarian Labor Congress of the Philippines) assembled at the “Templo del Trabajo,” the meeting hall at the residence of Antonino D. Ora, to discuss and finalize the basic documents of the Communist Party in the Philippine Islands (CPPI). The CPPI (now the PKP-1930) was formally founded, and its leaders elected, on the next day, the 34th Anniversary of what was then considered as the “Cry at Balintawak” of Andres Bonifacio and the KATIPUNAN.
Elected as general secretary was Crisanto A. Evangelista, who held that position up to his exile in December 1933. Elected as chairman was Antonino D. Ora, who held that position until his death on January 16, 1931.
November 7, 1930 (13th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution) — Public launching of the PKP-1930 at Plaza Moriones, Tondo, Manila.
May 30, 1931 — 1st Congress of the party, held at the El Retoño Bldg., San Miguel, Manila.
Note: Towards the end of its proceedings, the Congress was raided by secret service agents of the colonial government, headed by an American officer. Of the 400 delegates, the raiders were able to detain 317. Criminal charges of illegal association and sedition were later filed against around 40 of the Party's top leaders.
October 26, 1932 — The party was first outlawed, or declared illegal, by judicial judgment of the US-controlled supreme court.
March 1934 — 2nd Congress of the party, held in Manila. With most of the party's founding leaders in jail, a new [underground] leadership was elected, headed by Emilio Maclang as general secretary. During the second quarter of 1935, Maclang was replaced as general secretary by Rufino Tumanda, who held that position up to the party's 3rd Congress in October 1938.
January 1, 1937 — Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon granted parole/clemency and conditional pardon to imprisoned and exiled party leaders.
October 29-31, 1938 — 3rd (PKP-SP Merger) Congress, held at the Manila Grand Opera House, Avenida Rizal, Manila. Elected chairman, vice-chairman and general secretary were Crisanto Evangelista, Pedro Abad Santos and Guillermo Capadocia, respectively.
November 7-10, 1940 — 4th Congress, held at the Manila Grand Opera House in Manila. Evangelista, Abad Santos and Capadocia were reelected to the same top positions, which they held until their capture by Japanese fascist forces on January 24, 1942. On June 2, 1943, Crisanto Evangelista was executed by the Japanese fascists in Fort Santiago, Intramuros, Manila.
February 6, 1942 — Central Committee (CC) Conference of the party held in Arayat, Pampanga. A new party leadership was constituted, with Vicente Lava as general secretary. The February 1942 CC Conference planned the formation of a people's army against the Japanese invaders.
March 29, 1942 — At the end of a 3-day Party Conference, the Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon (HUKBALAHAP, the People's Army Against Japan) was organized in Sitio Bawit, Barrio San Julian, Cabiao, Nueva Ecija. The HUKBALAHAP had around 1,200 encounters with Japanese and puppet forces, killing around 5,000 Japanese soldiers and 20,000 puppet troopers, during the Second World War. At the end of the war, the HUKBALAHAP had 20,000 armed fighters, 50,000 reserves, and a mass base of around one million in all those areas from Northern to Southern Luzon where HUKBALAHAP squadrons, Barrio United Defense Corps (BUDCs) and provisional military governments operated.
September 1944 — The CC Conference in Bagumbali, Candaba, Pampanga, removed Vicente Lava as general secretary, over the erroneous “retreat-for-defense” policy (the much-criticized policy which was recommended by Chinese comrades in May 1943, after the March 1943 big raid where 10,000 Japanese and puppet forces captured the main HUKBALAHAP base in the Cabiao forest). A new “troika” leadership was elected, composed of Pedro Castro, Jorge Frianeza and Primitivo Arrogante.
February 1945 — US forces retake Manila, passing swiftly through Central Luzon provinces where Japanese forces have been cleared or weakened by HUKBALAHAP forces. However, the local allies of the USA (the USAFFE forces, and the politicians who collaborated with the Japanese and then shifted allegiance to the returning US forces) started to launch offensives against HUKBALAHAP forces. The party started publishing the “Katubusan” (Liberation) newspaper on a mass scale, and started the rebuilding of mass organizations — primarily the Congress of Labor Organizations (CLO) and the Pambansang Kaisahan ng mga Magbubukid (PKM).
July 15, 1945 — Founding of the Democratic Alliance as the united front electoral vehicle for participation in the 1946 general elections.
September 1945 — The CC Conference planned the party's support for the candidacy in the 1946 elections of Pres. Sergio Osmeña, Sr., and other anti-collaborationist politicians. A heightened campaign was launched against those who collaborated with the Japanese occupiers (led by Manuel Roxas and the Liberal Party leadership). The CC removed the “troika” leadership, and elected Pedro Castro as general secretary.
February 24-28, 1946 — 5th Congress , held at the Quality Club, Avenida Rizal, Manila. Pedro Castro was reelected general secretary.
April 1946 — The general elections resulted in 6 candidates of the Democratic Alliance winning as congressmen in Central Luzon. However, they were not allowed to take their positions in the house of representatives, further fueling tensions in Central Luzon. The Roxas regime ensured the exclusion of the DA congressmen so that congress can pass legislation granting “parity rights” to US business interests after the July 4, 1946 “US grant” of Philippine “independence.”
August 24, 1946 — Party political bureau member Juan Feleo and some local PKM leaders from Cabiao, Nueva Ecija, were kidnapped and killed by military men and “civilian guards” in Barrio Baluarte, Gapan, Nueva Ecija. They were then being escorted by MP bodyguards on a “pacification mission,” and were on the way to Malacañang palace to complain to Pres. Manuel Roxas about the atrocities of the military and the landlord-organized “civilian guards” in Nueva Ecija. In response to the dastardly murder of Feleo and his PKM companions, HUKBALAHAP forces were revived in Central Luzon.
January 1947 — Enlarged Political Bureau (PB) Conference in Manila maintained the primacy of the legal and parliamentary form of struggle, although tendencies toward the “appeasement” of the Roxas regime were criticized. Pedro Castro was replaced by Jorge Frianeza as general secretary.
February 25, 1948 — CLO National Secretary Manuel Joven was lured to a supposed union meeting at the Taysan gold mines in Batangas province, and was killed along the way at Barrio Amuyong, Alfonso, Cavite.
March 6, 1948 — Pres. Manuel Roxas declared the HUKBALAHAP and the PKM as illegal organizations. Roxas died a month later, and was replaced by Elpidio Quirino who continued the “mailed fist” policy against the party and its mass organizations.
May 1948 — CC Conference in Bulacan declared the primacy of the armed form of struggle, and subordinated other forms of struggle to serve the armed struggle. Frianeza was removed as general secretary, and was replaced by Jose Lava (although overtly, it was Mariano Balgos who was projected as the party's new general secretary).
January 1950 — Enlarged PB Conference in Laguna declared the existence
of a “revolutionary situation” as a result of the widespread terrorism by reactionary forces during the November 1949 general elections (where the party gave its critical support for the presidential bid of Jose Laurel, who never conceded defeat to Quirino). The armed seizure of state power was planned. The Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan (HMB, People's Liberation Army) was formed, and its Regional Commands organized.
October 18, 1950 — Government forces captured all members of the PB still remaining in Manila (led by Gen. Sec. Jose Lava), and their support staffers. Rosters of members were seized, widespread arrests were made, and a campaign of terror was instituted against the party and its mass organizations.
February 1951 — CC Conference at the Sierra Madre mountains in Laguna reaffirmed the existence of a “revolutionary situation,” and the strategic goal of an armed seizure of state power. Jesus Lava was elected as general secretary. The PKP-led HMB thereafter suffered continued reverses. By 1954, Jesus Lava was already in hiding in Manila, where he initiated a “single-file” policy for security reasons in 1958. This policy led to the liquidation of regular party organs at all levels where this was implemented.
June 20, 1957 — The party was outlawed for the second time, this time by legislative fiat, thru Republic Act 1700 (the “Anti-Subversion Law”) which was signed into law on this date by Pres. Carlos Garcia.
1959-62 — An initial group of loyal party leaders who were members of the CC in 1951 (led by Felicisimo Macapagal) was released from prison, and they started the rebuilding of party cells and mass organizations (initially, civic and community organizations), even without any contact with Gen. Sec. Jesus Lava for security reasons. As more loyal party cadres were released from prison, party and mass organization rebuilding gained ground from Central to Southern Luzon, even using as platforms the “Filipino First Policy” campaign of Pres. Carlos P. Garcia in 1960-61, and then the succeeding “Land Reform” campaign of Pres. Diosdado Macapagal. Aside from Felicisimo Macapagal (“Ramirez”), the other released comrades who led the party and mass rebuilding included Domingo Castro (“Alambre”), Alejandro Briones (“Florante”), Panfilo Centeno (“Marcos”), Mariano Franco (“Capule”), Placido Pascual (“Danny”), Godofredo Mallari (“Ramon”) and Teofilo Alipio (“Pio”). In 1962, these comrades concentrated on organizing the peasantry into a single organization, which was inaugurated as the Malayang Samahang Magsasaka (MASAKA) only in 1964.
1961-62 — While deeply underground, Jesus Lava appointed 3 section secretaries to manage party sectoral affairs: Francisco “Paco” Lava, Jr. (youth sector), Ignacio Lacsina (labor) and Pedro Taruc (peasantry). This and succeeding appointments by Jesus Lava of new Manila recruits to an “Executive Committee” were then not yet known to the released party veterans, who continued to undertake party and mass rebuilding in the provinces even without any contact (for mutual security reasons) with Jesus Lava. Pedro Taruc became inactive in party rebuilding, and later came under the control of the Sumulong bandit gang in Pampanga. Towards the end of 1962, youth leader Jose Ma. Sison formally joined the Manila group of the party.
1963 — Start of coordination meetings between the released party leaders in the field (who continued to have no contact with Jesus Lava), and the new party group in Manila led by “Paco” Lava (who had sole contact with Jesus Lava under the “single-file” policy), Ignacio Lacsina, Francisco “Dodong” Nemenzo, Jr., and Jose Ma. Sison. Together, the Manila and provincial party cadres organized the Lapiang Manggagawa in 1963 (which supported Pres. Diosdado Macapagal's agrarian and social reform campaigns), and then the Kabataang Makabayan (KM) in 1964.
May 21, 1964 — Jesus Lava was captured at his hiding place in Manila.
1965 — A Provisional CC was constituted, and a Provisional PB was elected, with no general secretary (“Paco” Lava however chaired its meetings). The party led the holding of a series of anti-war rallies to protest the US war of intervention in Viet Nam. The party also made preparations for the formation of a broad united front organization, which was inaugurated as the Movement for the Advancement of Nationalism (MAN) in 1966.
March 1967 — At a meeting in Caloocan City of the Provisional CC, a new leadership was elected with “Paco” Lava as general secretary, Felicisimo Macapagal as secretary for organization, and “Dodong” Nemenzo as secretary for education. PB member Jose Ma. Sison (who wanted the top post) and his CC associates (Nilo Tayag and Arthur Garcia) walked out of the meeting, and were later expelled from the Party.
April 1967 — Jose Ma. Sison and his group started maoist splittism in the youth and peasant movements, and in MAN. Sison fabricated a supposed May Day statement of the party's PB, claiming that “Mao Tse-Tung Thought” is the “highest development of Marxism-Leninism” which had allegedly “lighted up the whole world.” The same alleged party statement, which was publicized in the May 22, 1967 Hsinhua News Agency release, and in the May 1967 issue of the maoist “People's World” publication in New Zealand, also contained a condemnation of the Soviet leadership for alleged “revisionism,” and a statement “that there is no path to national and social liberation except through armed struggle.” The party immediately issued a disclaimer, pointing out that that statement was fabricated by a reckless anti-party group.
April 27, 1967 — An Enlarged CC Conference, held in Barrio San Fernando Sur, Cabiao, Nueva Ecija, clarified the party's strategic line in the national democratic struggle, and condemned maoism. This was the first big conference of leading party cadres since 1951, and a regular CC was elected.
Note: The maoist splitters formed their own party on Dec. 26, 1968, Mao's birthday, in Pangasinan, in order to carry on with the armed struggle or “people's war.” They later formed their “New People's Army” (NPA) in Tarlac on March 29, 1969, with the facilitation of Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr.
August 1969 — A CC meeting held in Barrio Sinipit, Cabiao, Nueva Ecija, assessed the maoist threat posed by the CPP-NPA, which by then had the open support of Senator “Ninoy” Aquino, media magnate “Don Chino” Roces and other known agents of the CIA, aside from covert assistance from the People's Republic of China and from local maoist Chinese businessmen.
Note: By mid-1969, Paco Lava had become an absentee party leader. In September 1969, he was removed from the Party by the CC. In his place, the CC elected Felicisimo C. Macapagal as general secretary.
(August 21, 1971 — In a most heinous plot to force the institution of a state of terror in our country, 2 grenades were lobbed at the grand electoral rally in Manila of the bourgeois opposition Liberal Party, killing a handful and maiming many, including members of the Senate and House of Representatives. This “Plaza Miranda bombing,” a turning point in the bourgeois political history of our country, was later revealed by one-time NPA commander Victor Corpus, early maoist leader Mario Miclat, and even later by former senate president Jovito Salonga, to be the handiwork of maoist head Jose Ma. Sison. It was a plot to force Marcos to declare martial law, which was supposed to lead to a general armed uprising against the Marcos regime. Marcos immediately declared the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. Adventurist NPA attacks spread to some parts of Luzon, and attempts were made to bring large quantities of arms by boat from maoist China.
On September 21, 1972, Marcos declared martial law, and the maoist dream of a general armed uprising vanished. The reckless adventurism and outright terrorism of the local maoists only served as provocation and justification for state suppression of all progressive groups, including the party's mass organizations which were declared illegal under martial law.)
February 11, 1973 — The party's 6th Congress was held in Barangay Catmon, Sta. Maria, Bulacan. The 6th Congress made a thorough assessment of the martial law regime in the context of the country's neo-colonial system and the contending interests of the imperialist-backed factions of the local ruling classes. Felicisimo Macapagal was reelected general secretary.
November 16, 1974 — Political settlement with the government, with Pres. Marcos and other top government officials meeting the party leadership in a formal ceremony held in Aliaga, Nueva Ecija.
(Note: Through negotiations initiated by the Marcos regime in November 1973, the party entered into a political settlement with the government in November 1974, under which the party renounced the armed struggle, dissolved the HMB and surrendered HMB weapons. The government on the other hand recognized the legal status of the party, extended amnesty to party and HMB members, released all party and HMB political prisoners, gave recognition to HUKBALAHAP veterans, and expanded agrarian reform in party-influenced areas. Within a few months of the political settlement, the party was able to start forming new mass organizations.
July 30-31, 1977 — The party's 7th Congress was held at Bgy. Taal, Malolos, Bulacan (first day); and at Novaliches, Quezon City (second day). Felicisimo Macapagal was reelected general secretary.
December 20 and 23, 1980 — The party's 8th Congress was held in Novaliches, Quezon City. Felicisimo Macapagal was reelected general secretary.
December 30, 1986 — The party's 9th Congress was held at the Cabiao Coliseum in Cabiao, Nueva Ecija. Felicisimo Macapagal was elected to the new position of chairman, a post that he held until his retirement due to illness on December 30, 1989. Merlin M. Magallona was elected as the new general secretary.
Note: Upon the retirement of Felicisimo Macapagal, the CC elected Nicanor Mangiduyos as chairman starting January 1990. Mangiduyos served in that position only up to November 1992, when he left for a foreign trip. He cut all ties with the party since his return from abroad in January 1993. The position of chairman had since been abolished.
November 7, 1993 — The party's 10th Congress was held at the Araullo Lyceum University in Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija. Pedro P. Baguisa was elected as the new general secretary.
November 7, 1998 — The party's 11th Congress was held at the Lorenzo Gymnasium in San Isidro, Nueva Ecija. Pedro Baguisa was reelected general secretary.
August 26, 2003 — The party's 12th Congress was held at the Main Hall of the Occupational Safety and Health Center (OSHC) at North Avenue corner Agham Road, Diliman, Quezon City. Pedro Baguisa was reelected general secretary.
November 7, 2008 — The party's 13th Congress was held at the Royale Resort and Convention Center in Malolos, Bulacan. Pedro Baguisa was reelected general secretary.
Note: Gen. Sec. Pedro Baguisa died due to illness on May 30, 2009. In his place, the PB meeting on June 14, 2009, elected Antonio E. Paris as general secretary. His election to this position was confirmed by the CC meeting on July 11, 2009.
November 7, 2013 — The party's 14th Congress was held at the 4K Resort in Sta. Maria, Bulacan. Antonio Paris was reelected general secretary.
(NOTE: For further information on the party's Program, Political Resolution and Constitution as approved by its 14th Congress, please visit the party's website, www.pkp-1930.com. Issues of “Sulong!” [“Forward!,” the party's monthly organ], documents of previous party congresses, party educational materials on Marxism-Leninism, as well as important statements and publications of the party since 1930, are also posted at this website.)