Remembering Michael ‘Ka Tarius’ Reyes, martyr

Letter to the Editor

The 503rd Brigade, acting as security forces for big mining interests in Abra, and in pursuit of the Arroyo regime’s hallucination of “reducing the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army to an inconsequential force” before the end of it’s term in June 2010, recently mounted military operations in Abra, and committed violations of human rights and international conventions on the rules of war.

On June 6, troops of the 50th IB, 503rd Brigade engaged NPA guerillas in two firefights in Tubo, Abra. At 8:30 am, a team of NPA guerillas encountered operating troops at Inapo, Barangay Beew and a brief firefight ensued, with no casualties on both sides.

At 1:15 p.m. another firefight occurred at Layaban, Barangay Beew. The NPA guerillas, outnumbered and outmaneuvered, were forced to retreat due to heavy gunfire, leaving behind a slain comrade, as it was impossible to retrieve the body without endangering more lives of the NPA guerillas.

The main focus of enemy fire was the position of Michael “Ka Tarius” Reyes, the slain NPA cadre. Michael “Ka Tarius” Reyes hails from Poblacion Lacub, Abra. Coming from a poor peasant family, Ka Tarius saw the need for revolution at a young age.

In high school, he was one of the active leaders of the Youth Organizing Group, and was tasked to lead the group when their leaders earlier joined the NPA. His college education was shortened by financial constraints and by his decision to join the NPA in 2002.

The soft-spoken young comrade earned his way to the CPP-NPA leadership because of his seriousness and perseverance in work, selflessness, discipline, and intelligent and skillful performance of his duties and responsibilities.

He was a squad leader and a member of the platoon command, and is in the leadership of the party branch of NPA unit. He was a loving and responsible son, and commanded the respect of his family even as he is the third among siblings .

Before going back to his unit in South Abra, Ka Tarius came from Lacub to visit his ailing father and made sure that support systems were set-up; his visit was unceremoniously cut by 503rd Brigade operations in Lacub in mid-February.

Family members were immediately informed of the incident, and as early as June 7, the family and town mates of Ka Tarius began mobilization to retrieve his body. Because of communication problems, details were unavailable at that time and the search had a difficult start.

The search delegation coordinated with the municipal government and the Barangay, and with the traditional leaders in the locality, and got the full support of the people. They pleaded to the officers of the 50th IB in the area to allow them to search the battle area in Layaban on humanitarian grounds, to no avail. The search delegation, grieving and tired, came back to Bangued after four days in the area, frustrated at the inhumane treatment of the 50th IB.

Why is the 50th IB preventing the people and the family of Michael “Ka Tarius” Reyes from searching the area and retrieving the body? The 503rd Brigade has a long list of human rights violations in Ilocos and in Abra.

The 50th IB in particular had been tagged as responsible for the extra-judicial killing of Pepe Manegdeg, a peasant leader of Ilocos; and the desecration of the body of Ka Braga and of Sammy Rey “Ka Cholo” Cayago by crushing their bodies and face beyond recognition.

The 41st IB, on the other hand, added in its long list of human rights violations in North-Central Abra, the four-day illegal detention and harassment of three civilians in Cubcuba, Bangilo, Malibcong during it’s failed precision-target operations on the last week of May, 2009. It is not far-fetched that the 50th IB again desecrated the body of Michael “Ka Tarius” Reyes. s.

The life of the 26 year-old Michael “Ka Tarius” Reyes NPA son of Abra was ended by bullets from enemy fire, but his shining example will inspire more youth to follow the road to revolution.

Diego Wadagan
Spokesperson
Agustin Begnalen Command
CPP-NPA