Brave, reliable, timely, readable.
This book by Left progressive spouses Carlo and Maya Butalid is that and more. Their bravery involves “unmasking” an armed revolutionary movement with a substantial and zealous partisan following, including among political intellectuals of the academe. That deep-rooted and far-reaching national-democratic movement led by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has often shown highly antagonistic reactions to “contrary essays” or critiques from fellow Left progressives. So, this may be counter-intuitive wishful thinking, but the CPP might yet learn something from this Butalid book that could be some good guidance for its latest “rectification movement.” Who knows, instead of “forcing the pace,” “a divided movement” for Left progressive change may one day, or one decade, finally learn, and find “the lost vision.”
It is in Utrecht, The Netherlands where the Butalids are based, as was the late CPP Leader Jose Maria Sison and the leading international functionaries of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). Precisely, a certain “up close and personal” view of Joma there for about six years (1987-93) is part of this book’s reliability as a first-hand insider source of information. The authors were long-time CPP cadres both in the Philippines and more significantly in Western Europe. They are now in their late 60s, and thus feel, like many of their activist (and boomer) generation, that it is about time to put on record for posterity their lived experiences, insights and learnings, including from their best years that they gave to the CPP-led national-democratic revolution.
The timeliness of this book is now also underscored by the recent “days of rage” against high-placed and shameless corruption rejected by today’s younger generations X, Y and Z of Youth and Students (YS) — to whom and for whom this book is mainly addressed. As has been noted in recent newspaper opinion columns, every organized force in the country is now seeking to harness, or harvest recruits from, that public and especially youthful anger and energy, and take it into a certain strategic direction. Those organized forces definitely include the CPP which has more purposively propagated the legacy of its late Founding Chairman Sison so that “Joma lives” by way of a cult-like “reaffirmation” still of his 1968 “basic principles” on Philippine society and revolution. Given the often dominant CPP-led nat-dem discourse that has been a long-standing unavoidable part of activism in the YS sector, it would be in the best interest of this current YS generation’s own informed decision-making to at least read, understand, and ponder on the information in this book avowedly unmasking CPP and Joma myths, but also more importantly advancing an alternative “way forward,” and then judge for themselves.
This book is thus deliberately written in a readable, simple and conversational style meant for younger readers. But even older political readers like me, more familiar with polemical, theoretical and even academic articles and books on the CPP and Sison, will find this book to be refreshing (or cathartic), with aspects and issues that would make for good and deeper discussion, study and further writing. We hope it spurs more of that, especially of the similar “up close and personal” kind like that of Carlo and Maya, Viva!
The header features a photo of CPP founder and leader Jose Maria Sison (b. February 8, 1939 – December 16, 2022) delivering a speech during the founding anniversary of the National Democratic Front in Utrecht, The Netherlands, on April 24, 1994. (credit: ABS-CBN News / josemariasison.com)
About the book reviewer
SOLIMAN M. SANTOS, JR. is a retired Judge of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Naga City, Camarines Sur and a resident of neighboring town Canaman in that province. He has a trilogy of books on his court work and practice: Justice of the Peace (2015), Drug Cases (2022), and Judicial Activist (2023), all published by the lawbook publisher Central Books, Inc., Quezon City. He is the author of TIGAON 1969: Untold Stories of the CPP-NPA, KM, and SDK (Ateneo Press, 2023). He co-edited the book Mga Dasô: Stories of Martial law in Bikol, with Paz Verdades M. Santos, and Greg S. Castilla (UP Press, 2025).