LEADER OF FILIPINO FREEDOM FIGHTERS CAPTURED
[The following report is taken from the June 5 Laging Una, published in Los Angeles, California, ]
Dr. Jesus Lava, top leader of the rebel Hukbalahaps, is oon-~ fined in a maximum security cell in Manila, awaiting trial on charges of ‘gubvérdion that could send him to the electric chair,
‘The Huk leader, 50 years old, was captured May 21 when 30 policemen surrounded a house in the’ Sampaloc district of Manila where: he was staying. He had been hunted for 15 years,
Lava presumably had left his jungle fastness in the Sierra Madre of central Luzon to seek medical treatment for acute malaria and other ailments that was not available except in a city. He is himself a medical doctor,
It is assumed that the tip of an informer who recognized Lava led to his capture, Press reports said Lava surrendered without a fight.
Four days after his capture Lava was. charged under the antisubversion law, which outlawed the Communist party and decreed death for its leaders. The prosecutors also: revived and amended old charges against the captive, substituting a charge of simple rebellion for "rebellion complexed with murder, kidnaping and arson, which the. Supreme Court in another case had ruled invalid.
The subversion charge alleges that Lava, from 1942 until his capture, was the leader of the Communist party and its military orn, the Hukbong Mapagpalayang Bayan (HMB or Huk) and as such led these organizations in taking up arms against the government "by making and conducting raids, ambuscades and armed attacks against civilians .and upon the Philippine Gonstabulary, Armed Forces of the Philippines and local police forces,
While government investigators claimed they had positive proof that Lava-had direct links with Communist leaders in the Soviet Union, China and Indonesia, Lava reportedly denied this, He was quoted as saying that the Communist party of the Philippines, of which he was secretary-general, was "most independent and most isolated,
Lava lived and worked in the "underground" with a galaxy of talented rebel leaders who, one by. one, were killed or arrested, When Huk Supremo Luis Taruc voluntarily surrendered to the government.in 1954, Lava succeeded to the position of |, bOP political and military leader of the rebel movement. nes
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Lavats brother, José, 51, a lawyer, is serving a life sentence. for. rebellion, He also was prominent in ‘the rebel movement:
~ Although the backbone of the Huk: movement was broken mili tarily, fear that it may revive haunts the dreams of the propertied classes, This fear was expressed April 24 by Manila Times columnist Alfredo R, Roces. He wrote: “Today the Huks remain a sinister | ghost, hiding in the shadows, mocking the law; and like the pro .. verbial dark horse awaiting a climate when they can burst de to make this entire archipelago a Vietnam." oo
Rooces asserted that Huk "Liquidation squads" were busy in Tarlac and Pampanga provinces and had in one week killed three. ~ plantation overseers and two Constabularymen.
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