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Pahayagan ng Partido Komunista ng PilipinasPinapatnubayan ng Marxismo-Leninismo-Maoismo
 ANG 
English EditionSpecial IssueOctober 9, 2011www.philippinerevolution.net
T
he leadership and entire membership of theCommunist Party of the Philippines (CPP), all Red fighters and commanders of the NewPeople's Army (NPA) and all revolutionary forcessalute Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal. Ka Roger passedaway on June 22, 2011 at the age of 64 after suf-fering a heart attack in a guerrilla front in Luzon.For more than a decade as the Party's spokes-person, and prior to this, as spokesperson of theNew People's Army in Southern Tagalog (MelitoGlor Command), Ka Roger was the face and voiceof the revolutionary movement of the Filipinopeople. He symbolized the struggle of ordinaryfolk—the peasant masses, workers, the urbanpoor, employees and small professionals—whohad lofty aspirations of liberation from the rulingsystem that oppressed and exploited them.As the spokesperson of the Communist Partyof the Philippines, he was the bearer of goodnews about the revolution. His voice fired up thecourage of both Red fighters and the strugglingmasses. The oppressed and the downtroddenthirsting for justice saw him as the conduit forairing their grievances.Like the majority of Filipinos, Ka Roger grewup oppressed and impoverished in the country-side. He was born on April 19, 1947 in BarangayTalaibon, Ibaan, Batangas. “Goring” was the thirdof six brothers and sisters: Nicetas, Bernardo,Felecidad, Emilia and Remedios, now deceased.Their father Pablo Rosal and their mother Crispi-na Crusat were both tenants serving a small land-lord whose fields were mainly planted to sugar-cane. His father boiled and stirred sugarcane juice to make muscovado while his mother tend-ed to the fire. His family belonged to the middlestratum of the middle peasantry and supportedcalls for revolutionary change.At a young age, Ka Roger was witness to pov-erty under an oppressive and exploitative system.
A Red saluteto Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal1947-2011
Central CommitteeCommunist Party of the Philippines
He workedhard even asa child in or-der to help hisfamily. From gradeschool to his secondyear in high school,he was for eight years aservant at their landlord'shousehold. He became an avid radio listener andread comic books as a pastime. Poverty forcedhim to stop his schooling for several years. Tocontinue his formal education, he peddled mos-quito nets and other goods that he bought oncredit from loan sharks. He traveled far and wideto different provinces. Wherever he went, it wasthe same face of poverty and oppression that hesaw.He was able to enter college at the GoldenGate Colleges in Batangas City in 1971 only atthe age of 24. It was a time of ferment for theyouth and students in Manila and other cities.As he went around selling his wares, Ka Rogeroccasionally encountered rallies and listened tothe speakers. He began joining street protestsand seriously studied history and current social conditions. Ka Roger became a member of the Ka-bataang Gabay ng Bayan, a Batangueño activist
 
 Ang Bayan
is published fortnightly by theCentral Committee of the Communist Partyof the Philippines
 Ang Bayan
is published in Pilipino,Bisaya, Iloko, Hiligaynon, Waray atEnglish editions.It is available for
downloading 
atthe Philippine Revolution Web Central located at:
www.philippinerevolution.org 
.
 Ang Bayan
welcomes contributionsin the form of articles and news.Readers are likewise enjoined to sendin their comments and suggestions forthe betterment of our publication. Youcan reach us by email at:
angbayan@yahoo.com
Special Issue October 9, 2011
 ANG 
2ANG BAYAN October 9, 2011
group. He later joined the Ka-bataang Makabayan. Throughhis study of society and integra-tion with the masses, he wasable to deepen his grasp of theroots of the poverty and oppres-sion suffered by the people.Gradually, he steeled his deter-mination to become partof the historic move-ment that wouldchange the face of society and open anew chapter in thepeople's lives.When martial law wasimposed in 1972, KaRoger decided tocontinue his revolu-tionary involvement. He becamepart of a team that was taskedto organize workers at the Bat-angas Sugar Central in Balayan,Batangas. In July 1973, he wascaptured by the enemy and de-tained at a military camp in Ku-omintang, Batangas City. Hewas later transferred to CampVicente Lim in Canlubang, Ca-lamba, Laguna. Determined tocontinue working for the revolu-tion, he bolted prison alongwith nine other leading Partycadres in the region in Novem-ber 1973 in what became knownas “The Great Escape”.After their escape from pri-son, Ka Roger and his othercomrades took the path of armed revolution in the coun-tryside. He became part of theguerrilla front established in theLaguna-Quezon border along theSierra Madre mountains—theso-called Larangan ng Ka-gitingan or Front of Her-oism. UnderKa LorenaBarros' leader-ship, Ka Roger andother comradeswere sent to Mind-oro in 1974 to un-dertake social inves-tigation andprepare theisland for revolutionary expan-sion.By 1975-76, Ka Roger be-came part of the first organizingteam in the Quezon-Bicol Zonethat led the advance of people'swar in Camarines Norte. Heeventually led the guerrilla frontcommittee established in thearea.In succeeding years, Ka Ro-ger became part of the historyof revolutionary expansion andadvance in the whole of South-ern Luzon, especially in theSouthern Tagalog region. In1980-81, the CPP Southern Lu-zon Commission issued a deci-sion forming the Southern Taga-log Regional Committee encom-passing the provinces of Lagu-na, Batangas, Cavite and Rizal.Ka Roger was appointed to theregional committee as deputysecretary for education. Whenthe South Quezon guerrilla frontwas later placed under the juris-diction of the Southern TagalogRegional Committee, Ka Rogerplayed a major role in expansionwork in South Quezon and theBondoc Peninsula. After a fewyears, he became secretary of the Laguna-North Quezon-East-ern Rizal guerrilla front.Under his leadership, armedstruggle and mass struggles ad-vanced in these areas. The Que-zon-Bicol Zone, South Quezonand the Bondoc Peninsulaplayed crucial roles in expand-ing and consolidating the revo-lution in other parts of the Bicol region and Southern Tagalog.Mass struggle and mass actionslaunched in these areas playedmajor roles in invigorating pro-test actions nationwide at thestart of the 1980s. In 1985, KaRoger was appointed as thefourth member of the SouthernTagalog Party Committee, elect-ed member of the Regional Ex-ecutive Committee and the Re-gional Secretariat a year later.It was also at this time thatKa Roger met Ka Soly (Rosema-rie Dumanais) who would laterbecome his wife. Ka Soly wasthen a young Red fighter. Theyhad two daughters who theyloved dearly and whose carethey entrusted to their relativesand friends. Even if their daugh-ters largely grew up away fromthem, Ka Roger and Ka Soly con-sistently saw to their welfareand security.In 1989, AFP Southern LuzonCommand chief Gen. AlejandroGalido ordered fascist agents toabduct Ka Roger and Ka Soly'selder daughter Andrea from hergrandmother's house in Ragay,Camarines Sur. The AFP hadwanted to pressure Ka Roger tosurrender. Instead of succumb-ing to such pressure, Ka Rogerbravely exposed this heinouscrime to the media. The militarywas forced to release Andrea inthe face of the ensuing publicoutcry.Ka Roger was witness to themajor strides taken by the revo-lutionary movement in SouthernTagalog. Nonetheless, he alsowitnessed one of the darkest ep-isodes in its history. In 1988,the region launched “OperationMissing Link,” an anti-deeppenetration agent campaignthat led to violations of demo-cratic rights. Although he hadno direct role in the detention,torture and killing of a numberof the victims, Ka Roger was
 
3ANG BAYAN October 9, 2011
among those criticized and met-ed disciplinary action becauseof his accountability as one of the region's leading cadres andhis failure to take a standagainst the hysteria. He criti-cized himself for this with all humility.When he was later assignedto Laguna where OPML wasmainly conducted, he constantlyreminded the Red fighters tohumbly apologize to the rela-tives of the victims. The woundseventually healed and revolu-tionary mass struggles advancedin the guerrilla front.Whatever he experienced inhis personal and political life,Ka Roger never despaired. Hefulfilled his duties as best as hecould. Beyond this, he madeoutstanding contributions inthe field of propaganda.As a leader of the Party, heknew full well the importance of propaganda work in advancingpeople's struggles. Ka Roger pi-oneered active propaganda workon radio and other mass media.In 1986, he first became knownas “Ka Roger” when he oversawthe release of prisoners of warin Quezon. In 1987, he servedas the spokesperson of the Na-tional Democratic Front (NDF) inSouthern Tagalog in peace ne-gotiations with the Governmentof the Philippines. In the nextseveral years, as spokespersonof the Melito Glor Command, KaRoger tirelessly engaged themass media to explain the CPPand NPA's views on various is-sues. He likewise oversaw thepublication of 
Kalatas
, SouthernTagalog's revolutionary massnewspaper, and broadcasts of Radyo Pakikibaka, the region'srevolutionary radio station.Ka Roger was appointed asParty spokesperson in late 1993.Among his first duties was toadvance the Second Great Recti-fication Movement in the fieldof propaganda. He went all outin engaging in political battlesthe counterrevolutionary rene-gades who resisted the rectifica-tion movement and malignedthe Party.Ka Roger was appointed tothe National Propaganda Com-mission in 2001 and served asits deputy secretary. Besidesserving as the CPP’s spokesper-son, he also helped oversee theregular publication of 
 Ang Bayan,
as well as work in thePhilippine Revolution Web Cen-tral and
Sine Proletaryo,
theCPP’s video outfit.For more than a decade,he served as Party spokes-person and headed the CPPInformation Bureau. FromVHF radios to modern cell-phones, he used all methodsof connecting with themass media to transmitnationwide news fromthe guerrillafronts. Ka Rog-er's voice and hisstraightforwardexplanations of complex issueswere eagerly awaited daily byRed fighters and ordinary folkthroughout the country.His simple style of present-ing the Party's stand was ex-tremely effective in helpingpeople deepen their under-standing of the issues and rais-ing their political conscious-ness. He always exposed the liesspewed by the reactionaries, es-pecially the fascist spokesper-sons of the Armed Forces of thePhilippines (AFP) who endlesslyconcocted one prevaricationafter another. Thus, he wasdeeply hated by the reactiona-ries.He invited reporters, broad-casters and writers from the me-dia to the guerrilla zones sothat they could see for them-selves the reality of the revolu-tionary movement and how thiswas being advanced by the Fili-pino people. Inside the guerrillazones, they came to know KaRoger as a simple man. They lis-tened to him as intently as helistened to them convey theirproblems and grievances. KaRoger gained their respect, if not their admiration. The abilityand patience, the sharpness andintelligence, the patriotism andlove of country demonstrated byKa Roger further raised the pres-tige of the Party and the revolu-tionary movement.As the CPP's spokesperson,Ka Roger was indefatigable inbringing news of the Philippinerevolution. He would hikefor days, cross riversand seas and go onlong road trips to getto wherever he wasneeded. He granted al-most all requests forinterviews, anyday and at anyhour. Becauseof this, hegained manyfriends inthe media.Ka Rogeronce sang“Lumang Simbahan” in a dueton the air with the famous sing-er and broadcaster Tiya DelyMagpayo.As Party spokesperson, KaRoger led several public activi-ties, including a celebration of the Party's founding anniversaryin Laguna in 1993 attended bythousands of people who gath-ered under the CPP banner. Heoversaw the release of several prisoners of war in Southern Ta-galog and Bicol. Despite intenseAFP operations, he was able toconduct press conferences inguerrilla fronts in Laguna, Al-bay, Quezon, Mountain Provinceand other areas.With their extreme hatred forKa Roger, the military kept onslapping him with varioustrumped-up charges. He was de-monized and portrayed as acriminal. A `5 million bountywas offered for his capture andmillions of pesos were spent onfascist military operations to kill or capture him.
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