The fabulous Huks

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Yo can’t go anywhere in the Philippines today without feeling the

influence of the Hukbalahaps—-tie famed guerilla organization ‘

commonly known as the Huks, which fought the Japanese invaders with
such courage and skill and is now displaying the same qualities in com-
batting the Philippine puppets of the United States.

One of the policemen on duty at my ship told me that it is im-
possible to transport so much as a pound of rice from one spot to an-
other without the Huks knowing about it.

‘They are everywhere,” he said. “They have their friends in th
post office, in the police department in the army. They have them
everywhere you-can think of. In fact, they know the contents and destin-
ation of every ounce of cargo tat this ship brought in.”

The Huks came into being eight
years ago when the Japanese mil-
itarists invaded the islands, The
Philippine government went into
exile, many of the high officials
taking refuge in some of Amer-
ica’s swankiest hotels, where they
sat out the war. The Japanese
proceeded to colonize the islands.
Left without any leadership, the
people soon worked out their own
plans of resistance.

The resistance took the form of
a strongly organized guerilla
band. Working well with the peo-
ple, the Huks soon became a
force that the Japanese army
Spent many a restless night work-
ing out ways and means to ex-
terminate. .

The Huks based their main
strategy on their flexible ability
to strike rapidly, in several places
at once, inflict as much damage
as possible, then retreat back in-
to the jungles and mountains be-
fore the enemy had time to know
what hit them.

I first came into contact with
the Huk guerillas when our ship
took part in the invasion of the
Main island of Luzon, The U.S.
Army, pressing for a landing on
the beaches of Subic Bay, found
the going rather tough and faced
the prospect of losing a large
Number of men since the Japan-
ese, after three years to fortify
the place, were well entrenched.

But having made their contact
with the guerillas, their landing
Was made easy. The guerillas slip-
Ped behind the Japanese lines, cut
their communications, blew up
their ammunition supplies, killed
many of the higher officers, and
thus created such a furore that
the Japanese found themselves

fighting on four fronts at once.

In such a situation, the U.S.
troops were able to establish their
beachhead.

.

I remember seeing the guerilla
‘headquarters in the town of Subic
Bay. A huge blackbéard was out-
Side their hut, which they used to
announce meetings and other
©vents, and provide general news
to the community. At night they
Would spread out and take off
"nto the hills in pairs, wearing

enly a bolo knife tied to their
waist,

The stories of the Huks and
their exploits are history. Their
bravery, their devotion and spirit,
kept many a person’s morale up
in the face of desperate odds. It
_ ‘Was a standing rule with the Jap-

anese high command that when-
_ €ver a Huk was captured, he was

to be tortured (before he was kill-

' €d) in the hope that he would re-
veal some information. No one
ever been able to record

Where a Huk talked against his

comrades,

The record will show’ that un-
told thousands of U.S. troops owe
their lives to these guerillas who
Assisted them in the operations,

warning them of traps, supplying
vital information, bringing in Jap-
anese officers and men for ques-
tioning, and carrying the wound-
ed Americans through the jungle
to first aid stations. And if you
walk through the jungles of this
area today, you will find many a
grave that shelters the body of
some brave Huk who before the
war was just another son of a
poor peasant.

The course of this struggle for
liberation came to be based on the
age-old desire of the peasants to
divide the land, a piece for every-
one who toils on it. It personified
the struggle for security, for in-
dependence, for the ending of na-
tional oppression, for jobs and
democracy.

The government-in-exile found
itself confronted with an armed
people who recognized that social
change was in the making, And
the government made promises by
the score. “Sure we'll divide the
land.” “Of course there’ll be jobs

’ for all.” “By all means there will

be no more oppression; we'll have
equality, peace, security and
abundance for all. Just let us get
back to our rightful positions.”

Came the ending of the war,
and with it the return of the land-
lords, the industrialists, the bank-
ers and other parasites. What
land had been taken ovér by the
peasants was returned to the land
owners on the pretext that it
would have to be redivided later

‘on. The police force was reestab-

lished, the militia, the secret po-
lice, the army. And the main em-

phasis, of course, was placed on-

disarming and disbanding the
guerillas. : ;

The police and militia went to
work to put this program into
effect. The peasants were thrown
off the land. Those that refused
to bow down to this mandate of
the landlords were arrested, beat-
en, their shacks burned down and
their goods confiscated. Hunger
and poverty was the lot of the
city workers, as well.

But as the terror grew, so did
the people’s resistance. Remem-

bering their four years of exper- —

ience under the rule of the Jap-
anese, they now started to form
again their lines of struggle.
From the jungles and mountain
ridges came the Huks, once more
to organize the fight for national
liberation, to force fulfillment of
the promises made to the people.

This time they struck in a
strengthened fashion.. They im-

and devotion to the cause of lib=
eration was the theme.

zation, estab- .

‘They used the same methods of
warfare that they had _ used
against the Japanese—strike in
many places at once, when the
enemy was least organized and
weakest. From then on in, when-
ever the constabulary would come
into a town to dislodge some
peasant who had taken possession
of the land, they would be met by
a band of Huks.

e

The Huks have had a number
of problems recently One of them
was the need for coordinating
various spontaneous guerilla
bands. The police were able to
put to rout a whole town of peo-
ple who later took to: the moun-
tains and organized their own
guerilla unit, which acted inde-
pendently of the Huks. There
have have been several such in-
cidents in recent months.

But this weakness has been
overcome as a result of a meeting
of representatives of all the gue-
rilla forces. And they have now
been unified under the command
of the famous, almost legendary,
leader of ‘the Huks, Luis Taruc.

So widespread are the activities

of the Huks now that they sur-
round Manila. From Santiago in
the province of Isabela, right
down to the'tip of Luzon, there
are guerilla units operating. And
the government has had to admit
that their numbers are increasing.

On February 2 the Huks raided
a town which was rich in rice
and other supplies. Out went the
army and police in what was call-
ed “Operation Border.” The com-
mander returned home and an-
nounced the Huks would no long-

er be troublesome, that they had

been physically wiped out. But
only a few days later, the Huks
were busy raiding a town in
Nueva Ecija.

Since February 2, there have
been nine large-scale operations
against the Huks. In each of
them, tanks, flame - throwers,
planes and other modern equip-
ment have been used against the
Huks. And after each campaign,
the newspapers printed the same
story: the Huks were finished.

But today in Manila, several
thousand police plus the army
operate on a 24-hour alert. They
are armed to the teeth, and wait

nervously for the next Huk move.
e

No people’s army can operate
for any length of time without
the support and respect of the
mass of the people. This the Huks
have. Whenever supplies are mov-
ed, the people get word ‘to the
Huks. Whenever police terror ‘is
unleashed in a village, the Huks
are on the march to stop it.

The brass hats now go to any
length to take it out on the peo-
ple for cooperating with the
Huks. Frequently troops fire into
a town and burn it down.’ Then
the newspapers print a familiar
headline: the Huks were to blame.
The idea of this tactic is to alien-
ate the people from the Huks.
But it hasn’t worked. In fact, it
has boomeranged against the gov-
ernment. «

At this writing another large-
scale @ampaign against the Huks
is in the making. President Qui-
Tino, reinforced by promises of

-source, to wiping out the Huks.

By
WILLIAM
BAILEY

American troops and supplies, has
pledged every effort, every re-

In fact, he has shaken up the
army high command several times
to get -rid of officers suspected of
being sympathetic to the Huks.
Now he has placed in charge of
this latest “Huk extermination
campaign” Major General Mari-
ano Castaneda, chief of staff of
the army—which shows how bad-
ly worried the government is.

But come what may, the Huks
will continue fighting with the
support of the people. They will
continue fighting until the pres-
ent government actually carries
out its promises to the people or
until] a new government is estab-
lished which will realize the long
dream of the Philippine people
for land, national independence —
and. democracy. F

Such is the role of the Huks.
And nothing was more inspiring
to me than to see the remarkable _
development of a powerful, dis-
ciplined people’s army of libera-
tion from a small band of gue-—
rillas of only a few years ago. —

‘ MAX WERNER WRITES ON

OR years a disturbed pic-
ture of modern war has

been presented to Ameri-
cans, writes Max Werner,

noted military analyst, in the
National Guardian. Now, in
Korea, we see that it is not
necessarily a war fought with
superweapons, with A-bbmb
super - weapons, with A-
bombs, guided missiles and
super-jets. Modern war is
war which influences the re-
lationship of power in our
time.

Probably the biggest single
fact in the military revolu-

_ tion of our.time is that the
. Asian soldier’ is fighting the
| Western soldier on equal foot-
ing. ‘Today, our press is full
of praipes Yor the military
quality of the North Korean
Army. “The troops, ably led,
are tough, trained fighters,”

July 9.

We have to ask ourselves:

said the New York Times on —

"How did it happen that the —

Asia's renaissance

American allies in Asia—Ku-
omintang China, South Kor-
ea and Bao Dai’s French In-
do-China—were unable to cre-
ate fighting armies? Why on
the other hand have Com-
munist China, the nationalist
revolutionary Viet-Minh of
Indo-China, and North Korea
marshaled real military pow-
er that is going to be trans-
formed into modern armies?
e ; %
This is not merely a mat-
ter pf fighting capacity of
mass armies measured in mil-—
lions of soldiers, The modern-
ization of the Chinese Army
is proceeding by leaps and
bounds. The handling of
tanks and artilleity by ‘the |
‘North Korean army is re-
markable, If the internation-
al tension continues and the
militarization of ASia gods
ahead, the Asiatic continent
is quite likely to train mil-
lions of modern infantrymen,
artillerymen, tankmen and
_ fliers. .

: one single average province _

and potential military stre-

one-tenth of China‘s military —

On the other hand the As- |
ian strategy is constantly per-
fecting and modernizing the
art of guerilla warfare, to
which Western military art
has so far found no counter-
strategy. In a war of attri- |
tion guerrillas can thwart |
much bigger and better equip- | _
ped forces. The Japanese
strategy was unable to subdue
the Chinese guerrillas though
it operated with massive army |
ies and at relatively short dis- |
tances, in Japan‘s own back-
yard. ee

North Korea is smaller than

of China; militarily it is only
the advanced echelon of con-
tinental Asia. Yet on the
basis of the experiences in
the Korean war we can cal-

ngth of China. North Korea —

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 4, 1950—PAGE