FIGHTERS FOR FREEDOM & LIBERATION: Commander Walingwaling (Coronacion Chiva); Her Struggle for Freedom & Liberation

FIGHTERS FOR FREEDOM & LIBERATION:
Commander Walingwaling (Coronacion Chiva)-1926-1977; Her Fight for Freedom, Justice & Liberation

(Coronacion Chiva (Commander Walingwaling) fought for the liberation of her people for three decades in Panay, Central Philippines –in the 40”s against the Japanese Imperial Forces. In the 50’s, she joined the armed rebellion with Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas to liberate her people from feudalism, US capitalism, poverty and oppression through the People’s War. In the 70’s she fought a legal and peaceful struggle against President Marcos’s martial rule, his greed and human rights violations. She believed war in the country will continue until the poor peasants, labourers and workers, the urban poor are freed and liberated from poverty, injustice, oppression and exploitations perpetrated by the elites and super rich’ control of the resources and politics of the country.)

“Indi kamo mag-entra sa military. Sila instrument sang mga manggaranon kag gamhanan nga nagapigos sang aton imol nga mga katawhan. Ang inaway sa aton pungsod karon magapadayon tubtub ang mga imol mahilway sa kapigusan. Indi kamo mangin instrument sang mga manggaranon kag gamhanan batuk sa aton imol nga mga katawhan”, she said in one of the messages she delivered in the people’s rally years ago in Plaza Libertad. (Do not join the military.The war being fought today will go on until the poor are liberated from oppression. Do not be an instrument of the oppressors against our poor people)

.With this words, Coronacion Chiva known as “Commander Walingwaling”, was a well-known fighter of the Hukbang Bayan Laban sa Hapon (HUKS) in 1940’s, and the People’s Liberation Army in Panay in 1950’s, continue to guide and inspire the young people in her village in Alibunan, Calinog, Iloilo.

In my interview with her in 1970’s, she shared her thoughts that military solutions is not the answer to problems of war and rebellion that rocked the country from late 1949’s to the present. She said, unless the deep poverty, injustices and inequality suffered by most of the Filipinos today are addressed, rebellion will continue, even if all the rebels today are killed by the government forces. For new rebels will come , rise and fight as long as mass poverty and injustices prevail.

Coronacion Chiva was only 14 years old when she joined the Hukbong Bayan Labang sa Hapon (HUKBALAHAP), In 1941 to fight the Japanese that invaded the country.

After the 2nd World War, she joined the People Liberation Army (PLA) , a revolutionary army in Panay to fight and help liberate her people from oppression caused by feudalism, American Imperialism and bureaucratic capitalism, an evil economic system of the Philippines that enslaved majority of the peasants and workers in poverty and injustice. The vast tracts of land in the country, the source of life for majority of people were owned and controlled by few rich and powerful elites. The continued armed struggles she joined in the 1950’s was caused by witnessing this deep poverty and experiences of tyranny and abuses by the military in the countryside.

She met her husband, Fernandito Togonon (aka Andres), in the movement. She and Fernandito got married in the movement, in a solemn ceremony witnessed by their comparies. Unlike in church and civil weddings, she retained her family name. When they returned to civilian life after imprisonment, they did not seek civil or religious marriage. All their children has to carry their mothers’s family name. But their love and union endured. It was strengthened with trails and time – guerrilla warefare, ambushes, months of separations and hard life.

Coronacion Chiva fought as member of the HUKS against the Japanese from 1941 to 1945. Then she joined the revolutionary army under the Partido Komunista nga Pilipinas (PKP). She rose fast in ranks in the revolutionary army led by Guillermo Capadocia, a member of the PKP Political Bureau in Manila who was assigned to waged revolutionary wars in Panay and Negros. She was with the revolutionary army, fighting wars in the hills and countryside of Panay until late in 1950’s when Guillermo Capadocia was killed.
Coronacion Chiva was with the liberation army during the Communists rebellion that rocked Luzon and the Visayas in the 1950’s.

She was a peasant fighter of the revolutionary movement led by the PKP. Due to poverty, she finished only Grade 11. She was beautiful, intelligent, sharp, eloquent, brave and decisive. Through the revolutionary movement , she learned and understood social, economic and political views. She learned to understand and speak English. She was a determined and formidable fighter committed to liberate her oppressed and exploited people.

With the capture of her husband and death of 11 other guerrilla commanders that day, Commander Walingwaling rose to higher leadership in the revolutionary army. She waged fierce battle against the military. She led raids and ambushes in many encounters. Commander Walingwaling soon became a byword among the peasants and farm workers. Her name was loved by the people. And also feared by the enemies.

She became a Squadron commander. Her command operating in the hinterlands of Panay along the mountain ranges of Iloilo, Capiz, Aklan and Antique challenged and fought the soldiers of the government for years. His clear understanding of the social, economic and political situation and clear articulations helped in their tasks of building the revolutionary consciousness of the people in the hinterland of Panay.

A determined and fearless fighter, Commander Walingwaling gained the respect, even of the military. During the hottest military campaigns in the mountains of Panay, even while pregnant, she was leading the battles and fighting in the hills.

In an interview with this writer in 1971, while visiting her and her husband, Fernandito Togonon in their homes in Alibunan village at the foot of the Mount Baloy, for a broadcast at “People to People’s Program” aired daily at 12:30 PM by DYRI in Iloilo City, Coronacion Chiva said, She joined the revolutionary army and fought because of poverty and injustices of the social, economic and political system perpetuated by the elites and oligarchs.

“ This evil system brought sufferings and untold miseries to the majority of the people. The lands and resources of the country were taken and owned by the rich, mostly Spanish descendants who took this lands, in many cases by force, in some by deceptions and have it titled in their names, under a Spanish Law to the disadvantaged of the poor. The lands in the Philippines were owned and controlled by the rich and powerful few. Their was no future for the poor people under an economic and political system that had chained millions in life of poverty, wants and injustice. This is why, the people’s revolution was needed,” she had said.

She said , the liberation from the Spanish and American colonial rule have not changed the lives of the poor in the country. Land, wealth and power were transferred only from the colonizers to the present elites who were their descendants.

She saw how the powerful political leaders used their government positions as capital to earn more wealth for themselves and their families. She know how foreign powers particularly US imperialism thru military and multi-national corporations controlled the country with laws, treaties, military agreements that were against the interests of the people. She said, she joined the oppressed in the revolution to fight for their liberation, equality, economic freedom and justice.

She believed that only thru the revolutionary processes, change will come. She looked forward, with anticipation the liberation of the country. That the vast tracts of land owned by the elites be returned to the farmers who tilled the land. She dreamed of government offices that were true instruments for serving the people and not as capital to further gain wealth. She looked forward to the day, when Philippine presidents are not subservient anymore to foreign powers and interests. She envisions the country’s liberation from the power of the ruling elites who controlled their lives, future and destiny thru expensive, fraudulent and often bloody elections. These were her dreams. And, during that time, the revolutionary movement was said to be “near the gates of Malacanang”.

But with the death of Guillermo Capadocia and several of his lieutenants, together with the capture of Fernandito Togonon (Commander Guevara), the revolutionary forces in Panay was heavily weakened. About a year of her husband’s capture and imprisonment, Commander Walingwaling was also captured. She was imprisoned in Iloilo jail for several months, then transferred to the National Prison in Muntinglupa. There, she served her prison term for rebellion, together with her husband for about 10 years.