By August 1989, a cadre of the Party regional committee came. He apologized to Lila for the delay in the investigation of her case, and cleared her of all the charges. She had spent more than a year as prisoner. The regional cadre also promised to find out what happened to her brother.
Lila worked for sometime in the countryside, eventually she decided to go home and go back to life in the mainstream of society.
Consolation and Optimism
In her quest to heal and move on, Lila said that her family, relatives and friends helped her recover and start anew. She, however misses the political discussion and analysis with her comrade friends. Her experience had given her “a strong, determined and flexible personality to face hardship outside of the revolution.”
Lila said she looks at her experience as a contribution to the movement and the Party. She believes that in a way she had touched the lives of the comrades and the peasants that she had met as a captive. Her story is among the many stories of courage still recounted by village folks in the mountain village she frequented with her NPA unit.
Rectification
In 1992, the CPP implemented the Second Great Rectification Movement and identified the ideological, political and organizational errors of the Party including the hysteria. Part of the rectification of the errors in the anti-infiltration campaign hysteria was its self-criticism and the imposition of disciplinary action on cadres responsible for it.
Lila was approached by several comrades, who apologized for the pain inflicted by the hysteria, and tried to explain the rectification movement. Arman, they said, was declared a martyr of the revolution. They, however, said it would be difficult to retrieve his bones because the general area where he was buried had been marred by landslides.
Lila said she has forgiven those responsible for persecuting her and Arman, but she could not forget the wrong done. There was a comrade whom she felt could have easily vouched for her brother, but did not because Arman allegedly “admitted everything.”
She and his father had already accepted Arman’s death. Other family members, relatives and friends still refuse to believe that the life of a fine, young man like Arman would be so horribly ended.
Lila said that a representative of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) had promised to issue a statement on Arman’s martyrdom. They are still waiting for the NDFP statement, Lila said.
Lila said there should be a day to openly commemorate the martyrs who were killed in the hysteria.
“Tamang magwasto, pero dapat din laging maalala ng mga tao na nagkamali, para matututo ang mga sumusunod na henerasyon (Rectify your mistakes, but also always remind the people of the mistakes committed, to serve as lessons for the next generation),” teary-eyed Lila said.
“Bilang pagkilala mo sa mga pagkakamali, bigyan mo ng tribute ang mga nagsakripisyo sa pagkakamali (In recognition of your mistakes, you should pay tribute to those who sacrificed their lives because of those mistakes),” she added.
Lila said the people still need their army and that the revolution must still be pursued.
“Tama pa naman sila e. Ina-admire ko pa rin ang mga nasa movement na inaalay ang buhay. At sa abot ng makakaya ko, ibibigay ko pa rin, (They are still correct. I still admire those who are still in the movement and are sacrificing their lives. And I will still contribute whatever I can)” Lila said. (Bulatlat.com)
