Luis Taruc

Luis Taruc (born June 21, 1913 in San Luis , Pampanga, † May 4, 2005 in Quezon City ) was a Filipino politician. From 1942 to 1954 he led the communist resistance movement Hukbalahap .

Taruc came from a rural background. As a student in Manila , he made contact with the communist intellectuals Pedro Abad Santos and Juan Felio and joined the communist movement. In 1942 he became the leader of the rural liberation movement Hukbalahap, which fought both the Japanese invaders and the large landowners. The guerrilla struggle against the Japanese contributed significantly to their withdrawal from the Philippines in 1945. The American military commander Douglas MacArthur declared the Hukbalahap illegal and had Taruc arrested. Taruc supported Sergio Osmeña's presidential candidacy in 1946 and was elected to parliament, but the elected president Manuel Roxas did not recognize his parliamentary immunity. Therefore Taruc fled to the mountains and continued the guerrilla war of the Hukbalahap. He was also interested in the recognition of the Hukbalahap people as freedom fighters against the Japanese.

In 1954, in negotiations with Taruc, the journalist Benigno Aquino managed to get Taruc to give up his resistance and the Hukbalahap to lay down their arms. Taruc was sentenced to twelve years in prison. After his release from prison, he continued to campaign for land reform in favor of small farmers.