NPA: Honor Ka Rachelle Mae Palang And All Revolutionary Martyrs!
Estrella Banagbanag | Spokesperson | NPA-Southeast Negros (Rachelle Mae Palang Command) | Negros Island Regional Operational Command (Apolinario Gatmaitan Command) | New Peoples Army
September 18, 2023
Today, we remember Rachelle Mae “Ka Hannah” Palang, a red fighter, journalist and nurse of the masses, who gave the biggest sacrifice of laying her life for the interests and welfare of the Filipino people. Ka Hannah was a hors de combat with two other comrades (Gerry “Ka Regan” Cabungcag and Federico “Ka Val” Villalongha) when they where killed by the 79th Infantry Battalion and elements of the CAFGU that attacked their camp on September 18, 2008 in the mountain border of Dauin and Zamboanguita, Negros Oriental province.
Rachelle Mae Palang was Mae-Mae to her close friends. Before choosing the arduous path of armed revolution, Mae-Mae was a student leader, a campus journalist, Vice president for the Visayas chapter of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), a licensed nurse and even passed the National Medical Admission Test. But being an academic achiever and activist in the legal democratic movement were somehow lacking for her.
She yearned to go beyond the standards of bourgeois society that repressed her critical thinking and rebuked her eagerness to serve the people. In her eyes, her knowledge and skills that she was privileged to have should be used for the poor who most need it, particularly the peasantry. Despite her difficulties and sacrifices, away from the luxuries she was born with, Mae-Mae committed to become a full-time Red fighter of the Mt. Talinis Command, now known as Rachelle Mae Palang Command, in southeast Negros.
Ka Hannah’s life is a constant reminder that the only way for the Filipino people to achieve genuine liberation and democracy is through treading the path of revolution. Her legacy dares the youth to get out of the enclosure that is the status quo and challenge the increasingly violent and rotting semicolonial and semifeudal society. For her fellow youth to remember and honor Ka Hannah, they must continue her legacy by dauntlessly overcoming the necessary sacrifices and difficulties in waging the people’s war.
The Rachelle Mae Palang Command – New People’s Army of the Southeast Negros Guerrilla Front (RMPC-NPA) call on the revolutionary forces, the masses and allies, and the sectors in the urban areas, particularly the youth and students, to emulate the daring and devotion of Ka Hannah. We must fear no sacrifice, and muster our collective strength to advance the revolution that is mainly waged here in the countrside.
Following the footsteps of our martyrs like Rachelle Mae Palang, amid the worsening humanitarian and socioeconomic crisis on Negros Island, we remember: the revolution requires sacrifice, but it is precisely sacrifice that molds genuine revolutionaries tempered by experience and struggle who are able to withstand and overcome the worst of fascists and imperialists to fight for liberation and democracy.
Source : https://philippinerevolution.nu/statements/honor-ka-rachelle-mae-palang-and-all-revolutionary-martyrs-fear-no-sacrifice-serve-the-people-and-the-revolution/