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Rainbow Guerrillas: Gay and Lesbian Narratives inside the Revolutionary

Movement in Mindanao

Article  in  Kritika Kultura · September 2022

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 Briones / Rainbow Guerrillas 498

RAINBOW GUERRILLAS
Gay and Lesbian Narratives Inside the Revolutionary Movement
in Mindanao

Jervy C. Briones
Department of Social Sciences
University of the Philippines Los Baños
[email protected]

Abstract
The LGBT community in the Philippines is tolerated but not accepted, as different forms of
discrimination against this sector still exist. The founding of several LGBT organizations in the
1990s marked the emergence of an organized LGBT movement in the country. The same decade
also witnessed the recognition of same-sex relationships and marriage by the Communist Party
of the Philippines (CPP ), which was an important development for the advancement of LGBT
rights within the revolutionary movement. In this paper, I argue that the significant number
of LGBT members within the movement necessitated the creation of revolutionary policies
that reject gender discrimination and advance LGBT rights. I mainly relied on Liberation,
the official publication of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP ), for the
narratives of eight gay and lesbian guerrillas from the New People’s Army (NPA ) in Mindanao
for it provides the first-person narratives of their everyday lives as 1) members of the LGBT
community and as 2) guerrillas throughout the course of the fifty-three-year armed revolution
in the countryside. I reviewed related works on alternative writing and the revolutionary
policies of the CPP with regard to the LGBT community and utilized the theoretical ideas of
Nancy Fraser on social justice and recognition. Through the narratives, the results show that
the gay and lesbian guerrillas, under the guidance of the party, have integrated their struggle
for recognition into the struggle for redistribution, thus avoiding cultural reification within the
revolutionary movement in Mindanao.

Keywords
Communist Party of the Philippines, LGBT , New People’s Army, recognition, social justice

About the Author

Jervy Briones is an instructor at the Department of Social Sciences, University of the Philippines
Los Baños. His research interests revolve around social movements, labor history, diaspora,
and critical theory.

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INTRODUCTION

Writing and publishing about Philippine Communism, particularly the Maoist

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP ), have been dangerous in the country
since the Cold War period, especially in recent times under former president
Rodrigo Duterte’s counterinsurgency plan, which adopted a whole-of-nation
approach to “mobilizing the entire government bureaucracy” against the communist
insurgency (Andreopoulos et al.) This is viewed by Duterte’s military-dominated
cabinet as an “end-game strategy,” targeting not only armed combatants but also
legal activists, writers, and journalists (Lalu). Led by the CPP , the movement
includes the New People’s Army (NPA ) and the National Democratic Front of the
Philippines (NDFP ), which have been collectively waging a fifty-three-year armed
revolution in the countryside, dubbed as the longest-running insurgency in Asia
(Robles). Despite the grave danger of amplifying revolutionary propaganda both
in the cities and the countryside, the revolutionary movement operates its own
regional, national, and even international publications, both in print and digital
formats. In the underground publications, cadres and members often share their
ideas and narratives as guerrillas. Some of these include Ang Bayan (the news
organ of the CPP Central Committee), Liberation (the official publication of the
NDFP ), and other regional publications throughout the archipelago. Aside from
echoing the CPP ’s stands on various local and international issues, the publications
also serve as spaces for members to showcase their cultural works and present
their revolutionary narratives.

This article focuses on the narratives of eight gay and lesbian guerrillas from the
New People’s Army in Mindanao that were published mostly in the underground
publications of Liberation and Ang Bayan. The two publications were chosen
because of their accessibility and use of the English language. Other gender and
sexual identities in the broad rainbow spectrum, such as bisexual, transgender,
transsexual, queer, and intersex, were excluded simply because no guerrilla in
this study had identified themself as such. Their narratives are significant for they
serve first-person view of guerrilla life in the country side. More importantly, their
narratives give us a rare glimpse of what it looks like to be a homosexual guerrilla
in a movement where homophobia persists, albeit organizationally promotes
LGBT rights. These texts, largely dismissed by the state as mere propaganda, are
worth studying to critically understand the dynamics and agencies of the gay and
lesbian guerrillas in the context of their participation in the revolution. Therefore,
this paper aims to answer the following questions: How do the gay and lesbian
guerrillas deal with gender discrimination within the revolutionary movement?
How does the revolutionary movement handle identity-based struggle?

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PHILIPPINE REVOLUTIONARY PROPAGANDA AND LITERARY PRACTICES

Elmer Ordoñez defines alternative writing as “a substantial body of literature

identified with or inspired by the national democratic struggle” (1). Being a broad
category, it includes writings made by city-based progressive writers and by those
in the underground revolutionary work in the countryside. This category of writing
is distinguished from and challenges mainstream or institutional writing. By being
counter-hegemonic, alternative writing offers a framework for understanding the
narratives of those involved in the revolutionary struggle. A prominent example
of alternative writing would include the underground publications from different
regions wherein the readers are often members of the revolutionary movement.
One such publication is Liberation, the official publication of the National
Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP ), founded not only to amplify the CPP ’s
politics and ideology, but also to gain the support of the middle forces and non-
communists through the allied underground organizations under the NDFP and
the international solidarity of foreign friends and compatriots. Ordoñez notes that
the NDFP , along with the CPP Central Committee, were among the early party
formations where underground publications, with a national scope, first emerged
during the mid-1970s (86).

Underground publications are generally unavailable to the public, especially in

the cities, primarily due to censorship and security risks, but steps were made by
the revolutionary movement to make them accessible on the internet. This became
possible through the Philippine Revolution Web Central, the official website of the
Communist Party launched in 2001, and other associated social media accounts
on Facebook and Twitter. In her study about the Ang Bayan, Lucia Palpal-latoc
Tangi narrates, “Every two weeks, red fighters and members of the CPP in remote
guerrilla bases nationwide…comb their armory for silkscreen and ink to create
their weapon of mass propaganda and agitation: Ang Bayan” (42). In 1998, thirty
years after the publication of its first issue, Ang Bayan was published online for the
first time on the website of the NDFP. These two phases (traditional and digital) of
producing/reproducing an underground newspaper show how Ang Bayan evolved
within the span of over five decades. Tangi identifies five important functions of
the party’s newspaper:

1. Serve as instrument of propaganda and agitation;

2. Interpret and analyze events based on CPP ’s standpoint;
3. Promote CPP ideology and party unity;
4. Provide alternative news and perspectives; and
5. Inspire the proliferation of other underground papers. (64)

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The difference between Liberation and Ang Bayan lies here. While the former’s
readership primarily includes the middle forces and non-communists due to the
NDFP ’s coalition politics, the latter is mainly intended for cadres, members, and
the masses, especially in the red bases in the countryside. In his master’s thesis,
Karlo Mongaya argues that while the (reactionary) critics of the underground
newspapers—such as Ang Bayan—can easily dismiss its contents as mere
propaganda, it cannot be denied that the movement’s need for reliable data to
measure its capacity in pushing for revolutionary change signals that there is
relative truth in the narratives and achievements that it publishes. Even military
officials acknowledged the sincerity of most of the CPP ’s revolutionary propaganda
(Mongaya 30).

An earlier study was made by Patricia Arinto, entitled Contour and Content
in Testimonial Narratives by Women in the Philippine National Democratic
Movement, which focuses on the narratives of grassroots Filipino women who had
been either activists or guerrillas, concentrating particularly on their “concerns
and roles…in order to determine how they construct their subjectivities both as
women and as revolutionaries” (67). She emphasizes that testimonial narratives
are not homogeneously produced and identified three categories of testimonial
literature according to their modes of production, namely those published by 1)
human rights groups; 2) feminist groups; and 3) the underground revolutionary
movement.

THE CPP ON THE LGBT QUESTION

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP ) was founded on December 26, 1968.
Its founder Jose Maria Sison and his comrades decided to “re-establish” the old—
and at the time already virtually non-existent—Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas
(PKP ) after years of ideological differences and struggles with the remaining
guards of the old PKP , namely the Lava brothers (“Constitution and Program”).
Joseph Scalice, in his dissertation, argued that this was the local manifestation of
the great split in the international communist movement that started in the 1950s
between China and the Soviet Union, known as the Sino-Soviet split. While the
PKP remained a Soviet-oriented party, the newly formed CPP aligned itself with
China and adopted Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought (later Maoism) as
its ideological line (Scalice 3).

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This Maoist turn further materialized with the founding of the New People’s Army
(NPA ) on March 29, 1969, committing to the Maoist military strategy of encircling
the cities from the countryside, known as the protracted people’s war. The strategy
was formulated in accordance with the CPP ’s belief that the country has been semi-
colonial and semi-feudal, but has not yet become capitalist. The pre-industrial,
agrarian economy then necessitates a national democratic revolution that aims to
boot out American imperialists and defeat local reaction before proceeding to the
socialist revolution. From 1969 onwards, the NPA steadily built its guerrilla forces
first in Central Luzon, until it eventually reached the hills and mountains of Visayas
and Mindanao, launching scattered guerrilla ambuscades against government
troops (Guerrero 77). Three years later, then president Ferdinand Marcos used the
red scare or the threat of communism to the republic’s security as justification for
his imposition of martial law even though the communist movement was still in its
infancy at the time (“Malakas at Maganda”).

Soon, in a bid to “develop and coordinate all progressive classes, sectors, and
forces in the Filipino people’s struggle” against the Marcos dictatorship, the
National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP ) was founded on April
24, 1973. This revolutionary coalition of underground organizations of workers,
peasants, and middle forces (i.e., the intelligentsia, professionals, etc.), moreover,
aims “to end the rule of US imperialism and its local allies of big landlords
and compradors” (“Revolutionary United Front”). Under the NDFP ’s 12 Point
Program, the 11th point states that the revolutionary movement should “advance
the revolutionary emancipation of women in all spheres” and explicitly states
that “the pervasiveness of patriarchy makes it incumbent on all revolutionaries
to combat it even within the revolutionary movement” (“Advance”). With this
program that aims to end patriarchy, I argue that this applies not only to women
but also to the LGBT community because both sectors are marginalized and
suffer from sexual and gender discrimination.

It is generally agreed that the modern gay liberation movement started with
the Stonewall Riots in the United States in June 1969. This marked the start of the
protracted struggle of the LGBT people for social acceptance, at least in the context
of the Western hemisphere. The movement, however, arrived in East and Southeast
Asia in different decades. In Taiwan, organized gay and lesbian activism started
with the establishment of the first lesbian organization, “Between Us,” in February
1990. It is worth noting that on the island, unlike in the West, consensual same-sex
sexual relations were never decriminalized after World War II , which is why it was
never on the agenda of activists. Instead, what they fought against was the vague and
discriminatory criminal code of “obscenity” wherein the police raided gay spaces
like bars, saunas, sports clubs, and even bookstores that contained gay and lesbian
literature (Kuan 594-596). In Indonesia, the postwar legal setup on homosexuality

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was almost the same as Taiwan’s, with the exception of the criminalization of sexual
acts between men and minors under the age of 21 (Ridwan and Wu 124-125). The
LGBT movement in the country can be traced back to 1969 with the founding of
the first waria (“transwomen”) organization in Jakarta (Khanis 130). Meanwhile, the
LGBT community in Vietnam remained invisible until 2008. Before, in Vietnam,
LGBT people were not socially accepted, and they only connected through virtual
means. It was only in 2012 when the Law of Marriage and the Family was amended
that the legal dilemmas of same-sex people living together were resolved. Since
then, public events and rallies had begun to be organized in Ho Chi Minh City and
other Vietnamese cities (Nguyen and Lieu 89-90).

In his book, J. Neil Garcia asks: “Why is there no gay liberation movement in the
Philippines?” He continues, “I had been one to wonder why no unified, continuous
effort to organize might be observed among the gays of my generation” (5). During
this period, there seemed to prevail a simplistic and backward perspective on
homosexuality and gay liberation even among early gay writers in the Philippines,
specifically Tony Perez with his book Cubao 1980 at Iba Pang Mga Katha: Ang
Unang Sigaw ng Gay Liberation Movement sa Pilipinas. From the very start, the
idea of having the novella narrated from the point of view of Tom (the teenage call
boy who was shot dead by his gay client Hermie) had already been paradoxical
with the title’s projection. Garcia, without dismissing the superb form of Perez’s
writing, critically questions the novella in the context of its pretense, stereotypical
representation, denigration of the bakla, and transcendental politics, which are all
in absolute contrast with Perez’s claim of being the first to cry gay liberation in the
country (284). Given the self-contradictions of Perez, Garcia correctly asserts that
“there can be no ultimate liberation of gays if the means of getting there require the
erasure of the gay identity or the surrendering of “gayness” (380).

In 1992, the group Lesbian Collective joined the International Women’s

Day March, which, in turn, became the first demonstration attended by an
organized LGBT group in the Philippines. Two years later, the first Pride March
in the country was organized by LGBT activists and supporters led by ProGay
Philippines in cooperation with the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC ).
The march primarily commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots
in the United States, but it also protested the imposition of the Value Added Tax
(VAT ) marking the politicization of the LGBT community in the Philippines.
However, even before the 1994 Pride March, LGBT organizations had already
been founded, and one of these is notably the UP Babaylan, which is based in
the premier state university and is the oldest LGBT student organization in the
country (“Being LGBT ” 16-17). To advance LGBT rights and gender equality,
the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP ) has been conducting same-sex
marriage. This practice is very interesting, especially in the context of a country

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where same-sex relations are considered a cultural taboo. During the formative
years of the revolutionary movement, there were limitations when it came to
the recognition of LGBT rights of homosexual cadres and members. These
were the years before the adoption and implementation of the On Proletarian
Relationship of the Sexes (OPRS ), a party document revised and released in 1998,
serving as the revolutionary movement’s guide about marriage and relationships,
including those of the same sexes.

The inability of the Philippine state to advance their cause has propelled
radical gays and lesbians to seize their space within the revolution. Rowell
Madula states that fostering acceptance, recognition, and respect for gay activists
and guerrillas have served as the CPP leadership’s way of providing what has
been dubbed as gay space in the revolutionary movement. This manifests in
the active participation of gays and lesbians in the national democratic struggle,
which, more importantly, historicizes them (Madula 56). A closely related study
was made by Kaira Zoe Alburo, who observed that gay cadres confronted the
hegemonic military masculinity in the army by utilizing means that were available
to them, such as engaging not only their comrades, but also their respective
party leaders in relevant discourses and discussions. What they challenged
was the NPA ’s “heterosexualized” military masculinity, which suppresses other
existing masculinities and asserts a space for alternative masculinities; for, in
the end, their enlistment in the guerrilla army creates a ‘new man’ who is ready
to kill and die for the revolution (Alburo 39-40). This willingness defines what
a good guerrilla is in the first place, argues Marlon Lacsamana. Aside from the
revolutionary movement’s understanding that a bakla or a tomboy is “someone
who is trapped in a body that does not correspond [sic] what they feel in the
core,” what is more important is for them to adhere to the CPP ’s variant of
nationalism and their commitment to collectivize themselves in a party unit in
order to be fully welcomed into the movement (Lacsamana 49).

Although the advancement of LGBT rights is one of the CPP ’s most recently
developed programs, it had notably already recognized “the right to form same-
sex relationships and changing one’s gender” all the way back in its Central
Committee’s Tenth Plenum in 1992. This made the CPP the first communist
party throughout Asia to address and uphold this position, surpassing even
China, Laos, and Vietnam, which are nominally ruled by communist parties
(Los Angeles Research Group 6). It is also worth noting that twentieth-century
communism had not been tolerant of homosexuality. In Cuba, for instance,
Fidel Castro admitted later in his life that the measures the Cuban communist
government had taken with regard to homosexuality were his fault. This
was after the island nation criminalized and pathologized homosexuality by
rounding up LGBT people and forcefully sending them to “re-education camps”

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(qtd. in Smith) Meanwhile, the communist movement in the Philippines also

wages an internal struggle against LGBT discrimination, essentially admitting
that homophobia persists within its ranks. In a more detailed manner, the CPP
declares,

Alongside the Party’s recognition of the right to choose one’s gender is its all-out
efforts to resist prevailing erroneous views or behavior against individuals who have
different gender preferences. Discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and
transgenders-ranging from humorous commentaries that reek of contempt to outright
homophobia-is widespread in decadent societies. The revolutionary movement
addresses this through education conducted among both the revolutionary forces and
the masses. The movement exposes and assails the oppression suffered by gays, lesbians,
bisexuals, and transgenders. Its goal is to struggle against various sectarian views and
attitudes, prejudicial treatment and distorted views on the character of individuals with
different gender preferences. (“Gays”)

In February 2019, President Duterte, in a homophobic fashion, claimed that 40%

of NPA guerrillas were gays (Orellana). Jose Maria Sison, as founding chairman
of the CPP , quickly replied that the claim was absurd given that the army and the
police were having a hard time locating the rebels in more than 100 guerrilla fronts
in the countryside. He criticized Duterte’s cheaply made jokes as misogynist and
anti-LGBT and stressed that the revolutionary movement’s policy is the rejection
of discrimination on the guerrilla recruitment of LGBT people.

The men, women, and LGBT are qualified to become Red commanders and fighters so
long as they are 18 years old or older, and are able-bodied, haverevolutionary commitment,
and are willing to undertake politico-military training, to do mass work, and to fight the
enemy with firearms. (Sison)

GAY AND LESBIAN GUERRILLA NARRATIVES IN MINDANAO

In 2014, a gay guerrilla officer was given a tribute by the National Democratic Front-
Southern Mindanao Region (NDF -SMR ) after they1 were martyred while on duty.
They were Wendell “Ka Waquin” Gumban, who was an alumnus of the University
of the Philippines Diliman where they first became an activist before eventually
joining the underground movement in the countryside. Ka Waquin was known in
the guerrilla fronts in Mindanao as a hard-working and passionate communist who
dedicated their life to the peasant masses and the revolution. They were just among

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the many gay and lesbian guerrillas who unconditionally risked and offered their
lives for the sake of the revolution (Del Mundo). For gays like Ka Waquin, there are
still challenges for the LGBT people in the revolutionary movement, particularly
for the gay guerrillas of the NPA ’s Pulang Bagani Batallion in Southern Mindanao.
Here, Ka Riko recalls the history of participation of gays in the struggle,

May mga kwento ang mga ‘ninunong bakla’, mga ‘anitong bading’ sa lunsod noon na
tinitingnang kahinaan ng ilang kasama ang pagiging bakla nila. Sasabihan pa raw sila noon
na bakit tikwas nang tikwas ang mga daliri nila, kembot nang kembot sa rali. Umabot pa
sa puntong itinuring na banta sa seguridad ang kabaklaan nila. Pero pinatunayan nilang
walang kinalaman ang pagtikwas at pagkembot nila sa kakayanan nilang mamuno at
gumampan kahit pa gawaing military. (“Kasarian”)

‘Gay ancestors’ and ‘gay icons’ in the cities have stories back then that some comrades saw
their homosexuality as a weakness. They were even criticized for their flipping fingers
and swaying hips during rallies. There was even a time when being gay was considered a
security risk. But they have proven their worth that the flipping of their fingers and the
swaying of their hips have nothing to do with their ability to lead and carry out tasks,
including military ones. (Author’s translation)

Ka Riko asserts that gays, like their heterosexual comrades, have the same
capacities in doing politico-military work in the guerrilla fronts. In their testimony,
one can see that homophobia and machismo remain rampant within the movement.
However, these tendencies are criticized and resisted under the party’s policy
of advancing LGBT rights. It seems that gender discrimination suffered by gay
comrades, particularly in the Southern Mindanao Region, has declined by late
2000. Primarily, this can be ascribed to the unconditional bravery shown by a gay
guerrilla in facing government troops to save their comrades. In other words, they
first needed to prove themself to their heterosexual comrades by risking their own
life to save others just to gain their comrades’ respect for gays. Ka Riko continues,

Turning point siguro, kung partikular sa karanasan ng SMR , noong late 2000.
Napadepensiba ang isang yunit ng NPA at nahirapang mag- withdraw sa erya. Palapit
na noon ang mga militar. Isang bading na NPA ang humarap sa kanila para matulungang
makapagmaniobra ang mga kasamang naipit. (“Kasarian”)

The turning point was back in late 2000, particularly in the experience of SMR (Southern
Mindanao Region). A fighting unit of the NPA was put on the defensive and had a difficult
time withdrawing from the area. The military was advancing fast. A gay comrade fired
at the enemy as a diversionary tactic to enable the comrades to maneuver and withdraw.
(Author’s translation)

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Ka Duday, a medic of the Pulang Bagani Batallion, suffered discrimination at the

hands of their comrades. They were confused about how they should behave around
their peers during their first stay on the guerrilla front. At the camp, they were
allowed to take a bath with neither men nor women due to vague revolutionary
policies about sexes. A homophobic comrade even questioned the role of gays
like them in the revolution. The discrimination that they suffered resulted in their
demoralization that, in turn, led them to temporarily leave the movement. However,
Ka Duday eventually returned because neither their emotions nor the homophobia
through which they suffered prevailed over their commitment to the revolutionary
struggle,

Naramdaman ko noon na hindi ko alam kung paano ilulugar ang sarili ko. Hindi ako
pwedeng sumabay sa mga lalaki sa paliligo kasi paglabag daw sa palisiya. Hindi rin
pwedeng sumabay sa mga babae dahil pagsasamantala raw iyon. Nasabihan din ako ng
isang kasama na ‘walang lugar sa rebolusyon ang mga bakla’. Galit na galit ako noon.
Bumaba ang morale kaya nagdesisyon akong bumaba na lang. Pag-uwi ko, wala rin
naman akong nagawa. Iyak lang ako nang iyak. Matapos ng ilang buwan, nagsabi akong
babalik ako para makipag-assess. (“Kasarian”)

I felt back then that I did not know how I would place myself. I can’t take a bath with the
men because it will violate the rules. I can’t join the women because they might think I
am taking advantage of them. Then somebody remarked that gays have no place in the
revolution. Severely offended, I got demoralized. I left the movement. But at home, there
was nothing I could do but cry. After a few months, I sent word I will return and assess
with them. (Author’s translation)

In the end, Ka Duday believes the necessity of an identity-based struggle to end

bigotry and discrimination against the LGBT . They believe that homophobia is a
product of the bourgeois culture that should be struggled against and changed by
everyone, including their heterosexual comrades. Ka Duday also asserts that the
struggles of gays and lesbians, like other people, are not detached from capitalist
exploitation, which is why they assure that gays and lesbians can be expected to
play a significant role in the revolutionary struggle,

Tingin ko, iyong pagbaka at pagbabago sa nakagisnang kultura sa burges na

lipunan, magmumula kapwa sa mga bakla at lesbyana at mga straight. May mga
dokumento namang pwedeng gumabay sa pag-aaral para ipaunawang hindi
hiwalay ang mga bakla at lesbyana sa nararanasang pagsasamantala, na
kabahagi ng rebolusyon ang mga bakla at lesbyana. Pero paano naming
maipapaabot ang mensahe at aral kung kami mismo ay lumalabag sa mga
disiplina. (“Kasarian”)

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I believed that combating the culture of the bourgeois society we were born into
and initiating change would come from the collective struggle of gays, lesbians
and straights. Party documents are available to enlighten gays and lesbians that
they are not divorced from the exploitation suffered by others. But we cannot
send the message and convince them of the exigency for revolution if we
are undisciplined. (Author’s translation)

Ka Princess (formerly Ka Marco), a political officer of a guerrilla platoon,

remembers how they struggled in admitting that they are gay. For a year, they kept
to themself their true gender, which became heavy personal baggage. With the
help of their unit’s political instructor, they were able to “come out.” It became
a fundamental part of the CPP to instill a culture of discipline within its ranks,
especially in the everyday lives of guerrillas like Ka Princess. However, like in
ordinary bourgeois life, it seems that even within the movement that has been
fighting for social liberation, it is still a struggle to express one’s gender identity. Ka
Princess details their ‘coming out,’

Isang taon mahigit kong itinago ang pagkatao ko sa mga kasama. Naging bagahe ko na.
Kaya isang araw, kinausap ko si Ka Bob, political instructor namin. Sabiko sa kanya, ‘Bob,
basin di ka mutuo sa akong ingnon ba, basin ma-schock ka kung unsa katinuod akong
ingon. Giingnan gyud nako sya na tinuod gyud na babae gyud ko. Ikaw na magpaabot
sa han-ay sa komite nga maistoryahan ninyo na. Kay basta importante, nakapaabot ko
ana. (Bob, baka hindi ka maniwala sa sasabihin ko, baka ma-schock ka kung gaano sa
katotohanan. Sinabihan ko siyang babae talaga ako. Ikaw ang magsabi sa komite at pag-
usapan niyo. Ang importante nasabi ko na. (“Kasarian”)

For more than a year, I concealed my real self from my comrades. But it bothered me
so one day I opened up to Ka Bob, our political instructor. I said, ‘Bob, you might not
believe, you might be shocked.’ I said that I am a woman. I requested him to discuss
it with the committee. I did not know how they would react but it was the least of my
worry. The important thing was I got ‘out’ and felt relieved. (Author’s translation)

Meanwhile, Ka Awra, an educational instructor in the red battalion, is optimistic

since they had “come out.” After they ”liberated” themself, they were able to fully
express themself and be confident among the comrades and the masses inside
the guerilla zone. In their narrative, they love the reception of the masses to their
being gay and, at the same time, revolutionary. The two dynamics did not become
a hindrance in their duties as an educational instructor, especially after the masses
accepted their gender identity. Ka Awra states,

Nadiskubre kong marami pa pala akong pwedeng gawin pagkatapos kong mag- out.
Marunong pala akong magsulat, sumayaw. Mas naging bukas na rin ako sa mga kasama

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at masa. Mamahalin ka ng masa lalo na kung tinutulungan mo sila sa kanilang mga

problema, makikita nilang kasama ka sa hukumang bayan sa pagresolba ng mga suliranin.
Nakikinig sila kapag nagbibigay ka ng pag-aaral, kurso man ng Partido o simpleng
pagbasa at pagsulat. Kung kasama ka sa pagdedesenyo ng programa at pagpapatupad
nito, buong-buo kang tatanggapin ng masa kahit pa anong kasarian mo. (“Kasarian”)

I discovered after ‘coming out’ that there is much more I can do. I learn that I can write
and I can dance. I have become more open to comrades and the masses. I realized that
the masses would accept and love you whatever your gender is for as long as you could
help them with their problems; they will see you at the people’s court resolving issues;
they are enlightened, and they learn from your instruction, be of the Party courses or
simply to read and write. For if you are with them in charting plans and programs, they
will wholeheartedly accept you whatever your gender is. (Author’s translation)

One day, Ka Awra, who is also a Moro, was assigned to lead a guerrilla team
for a special operation. Despite their initial hesitations, they realized the greater
importance of the military task assigned to them over their feminine long hair,
eventually accepting the leadership of the operation. Initially, we can observe the
supposed suppression of Ka Awra’s expression of their gender identity during the
operation. However, looking at the English version of the article, “The Revolution
Has No Gender,” would indicate otherwise because they manned a supposed
checkpoint of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP ), which is why the
instruction for them to maintain the “AFP character” of being hypermasculine was
on purpose to avoid a botched operation. Interestingly, one of the drivers, who
also lives in a revolutionary mass base, acknowledged them as a guerrilla because
they were gay and given the fact that no AFP soldier had ever “come out.” Ka Awra
recalls,

Minsan naatasan akong mag-team leader sa isang special operation. Ayaw na ayaw kong
pumayag. Ang haba na ng buhok ko noon pero kailangan daw gupitan. Iyak ako nang
iyak habang ginugupit nila ang buhok ko. Sabi ko pa, ‘Ayaw ko nang mag-struggle,’ with
matching iyak-iyak.

Pero sa bandang huli, naisip ko rin na uunahin ko ba ang pansariling kaligayahan kumpara
sa gawaing ibinigay. Pumayag na ako. Tapos nagpraktis na kami paano ilulunsad ang
operasyon. Sa aktwal na, nakabantay ang mga “direktor” ko. Tinatawag ako pag tingin
nila lumalambot ang pagsasalita at kilos ko. Pero hinahayaan naman nila akong maging
ako kapag walang ibang tao. Nakakapagdekwatro na ako at nakakapag-abaniko kapag
kami-kami lang. Babalik lang sa karakter kapag may ibang tao at sasakyan. (“Kasarian”)

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Once I was assigned to lead a team in a special military operation. I vehemently refused,
especially because my long hair will have to be cut. I was crying throughout the time my
hair was being cut. ‘I no longer want to be part of the struggle,’ I jokingly said.

But in the end, I realized I should not prioritize personal desires over the revolutionary
tasks given. I finally accepted the task and we rehearsed howto carry out the operation.
During the actual tactical operation, there were “directors” who coached me. They called
my attention whenever my voice and action started to soften up. But they let me be
myself when there were no other people around. I could sit down with my legs crossed.
I could fan myself. But when there were other people and vehicles, I had to return to
‘character.’ (Author’s translation)

Like Ka Princess, Ka Leslie and Ka Kurt, who are gay members of the Regional
Medical Staff of the NPA -SMR , struggled to “come out” due to the dilemmas they
were facing in relation to their families and friends. They were only able to open
up and reveal their gender identities within the movement with the help of their
comrades. Although both sometimes still experience discrimination, they rely on
criticism and self-criticism, a major Maoist organizational concept on rectification.
As narrated in Ang Bayan,

Ka Kurt and Ka Leslie both take their work in the NPA seriously. The fact that they have
been given responsibilities commensurate to their abilities regardless of their gender is
to them, a mark of their comrades’ respect and confidence in them. They both consider
their coming out and their comrades’ acceptance of them as gays as individually liberating.
They have broken free of bourgeois society’s prejudicial views and discrimination and
enjoy the democracy and equality that the revolutionary movement has to offer. They
believe that the Party raised the status of gays in society after its official recognition and
assurance that their rights and welfare will be protected. (“Gays and Lesbians” 6).

Ka Maggie, a lesbian guerrilla, admits that at first, “Naging kloseta ako sa kilusan
for a time kasi hindi ko alam kung ano’ng stand natin sa LGBT . Nakikiramdam
muna ako” (“Ka Maggie” ). This was in 1998 when they joined the NPA , the same
year when the revised On Proletarian Relation of the Sexes was released. They were
the first lesbian in their guerrilla unit, which is why their comrades had to adjust to
the then unusual situation. After more than two decades of serving the revolution
in the people’s army, Ka Maggie is certain of the CPP ’s advancement of LGBT rights:

Isang dahilan yan kung bakit proud ako sa Party, talagang mapagpalaya. Imagine, kung
may means pa ang Party, lalo na kung Sosyalismo na, mas yayabong talaga ang kalayaan at
karapatan ng LGBT . Posible talaga ang panahon na ang bawat isa ay hindi na tumitingin
sa kung ano ang kulay, kasarian. Kaya dapat ipagpatuloy natin ang dakilang pakikibakang
ito dahil do’n din nakasalalay ang mga butil ng pakikibaka ng mga LGBT . (“Ka Maggie”)

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That is a reason why I am proud of the Party that liberates. Imagine if the Party has the
means especially if we’re already under socialism, the rights of LGBT will surely advance.
There may be a time when everyone will no longer look at color and gender. That is why
we should continue this great struggle because the seeds of the LGBT struggle rely here
on. (Author’s translation)

Lastly, there is Kiriya, a gay education staff of the NPA –North Central Mindanao
Region (NPA -NCMR ). According to the interview conducted by Redfish, a Berlin-
based media collective, Kiriya is the only member of their family who takes up arms.
They also stress that there is neither salary nor personal gain to be found in the NPA
in contrast to the situation of the salaried soldiers of the AFP . They then proudly
highlight that what the guerrillas have is hope, as the masses unconditionally grace
them with different kinds of support for their revolutionary struggle (“Inside the
New People’s Army, Part 2”). What Kiriya said seems to be an appeal to the entire
LGBT community:

Gays must be militant, serving the people. Showing that gays can be useful.
Gays are useful to the society. They are creative, they can design, of course.
Let’s go to the revolution and design the world, create a new world!
(“Inside the New People’s Army, Part 1”)

RETHINKING RECOGNITION IN THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT

The presentation above mainly centers on the narratives of gay and lesbian guerrillas
inside the New People’s Army in Mindanao, and the revolutionary movement’s
resolve to address gender discrimination. First and foremost, I argue that the
significant number of LGBT people and the existence of patriarchal elements
within the movement necessitated the CPP to recognize basic LGBT rights such
as same-sex relationships and changing one’s gender, as enshrined in the party’s
tenth plenum in 1992. Later, this was followed by the party’s facilitation of same-
sex marriages, guided by the document On Proletarian Relationship of the Sexes
(OPRS ). The CPP founding chairman Jose Maria Sison, on his part, claims that “the
CPP has accorded full civil, political, economic, cultural, and social rights to LGBT s
in guerrilla zones and territories of the provisional revolutionary government” in
the countryside. He continues,

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For 25 years, the CPP rules on the relation of sexes have included a non-discrimination
clause that guarantees LGBT s enjoy the right to love and be loved while in pursuit of
revolutionary goals. Yes, marriage equality has long been a part of life in the revolution.
The 12-point program of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines has also
included a provision for the cause of LGBT s. When the revolution wins, equal rights
and non-discrimination would be part of the law of the land. (Sison, “Resist Together”)

In understanding and analyzing the narratives and dynamics of the subjects,

the author utilized the conceptions of the social justice of redistribution and
recognition by American philosopher Nancy Fraser. She is a distinguished scholar
who has extensively written on social movements and identity politics. While
several definitions describe the latter as a sociocultural phenomenon, in this paper,
the author refers to the “general efforts by status-based movements to foster and
explore the cultural identity of members” (Bernstein 47). Historically, activists who
involved themselves in identity-based struggles, according to Alcoff and Mohanty,
possessed these two beliefs: 1) that identities are resources of knowledge relevant
for social change and 2) that oppressed groups must be at the forefront of their
liberation (2). They add that even Nathan Glazer and Judith Butler, who are on the
opposing poles of their political beliefs, both agree that struggles guided by identity
politics are “politically limited and misguided” (Alcoff and Mohanty 2). With these
circumstances, Fraser came up with her ideas on how to critically deal with the
dilemma of identity struggles sans the tendency to overemphasize or jettison
identity.

Central to Nancy Fraser’s works are her conceptions of social justice, particularly
on redistribution and recognition. The former refers to the distribution, for instance,
of wealth and income from the rich to the poor while the latter refers to the social
acceptance of the disadvantaged race, ethnicity, sex, and gender. She problematizes
the relation between these two claims of social justice by arguing that the claims
of recognition tend to dominate the claims of redistribution by declaring that the
latter’s politics failed to protect the rights of the LGBT and indigenous peoples,
so to speak. This was made possible by the combination of the following events
between the 1980s and the 1990s: the collapse of communism, the emergence of
neoliberal ideology, and the rise of identity politics. However, there is also the
outright rejection of the politics of recognition by the advocates of redistribution,
justified through the assertion of claims of recognition as “false consciousness” that
impedes the achievement of social justice. In essence, this dissociation between
the two unnecessarily became polarization (Fraser and Honneth 7-8). Fraser and
Honneth then contend that both redistribution and recognition are requirements
to attain social justice. Neither of the two will suffice on their own, which is why
their emancipatory elements should be integrated into a single comprehensive
framework that will serve as a guide for social movements. Here in the Philippines,

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this can be contextualized, for example, by reconciling the campaigns of land

reform under the politics of redistribution and the advancement of LGBT rights
under the politics of recognition.

Despite these developments within the revolutionary movement, Fraser warns

that the struggle for recognition should be kept away from being hijacked by
identity politics i.e., the abandonment of the politics of redistribution (Fraser 25).
She historicizes that identity politics became infamous in recent decades because
of the tendency of some movements (e.g., feminist movements) to essentialize
their misrecognition that estranges its connection to maldistribution (e.g.,
landlessness, labor exploitation) (Fraser 22). “Although it condemns ‘discrimination’
and advocates ‘freedom of choice,’” Arruzza and Bhattacharya denounce liberal
feminism for refusing “to address the socioeconomic constraints that make
freedom and empowerment impossible for the large majority of women” (11). Still,
however, the politics of recognition should not be rejected because “that would
be to condemn millions of people to suffer grave injustices” (Fraser 32). What is
needed, accordingly, is a non-identitarian politics that remedies misrecognition
without displacing redistribution and reifying group identities (Fraser 32). In the
case of the Philippine revolutionary movement, rejecting the claims of recognition
would entail the undermining of the discrimination that LGBT guerrillas suffer.
Nonetheless, the identity-based struggle of the gay and lesbian guerrillas, and
the revolutionary movement’s efforts towards the integration of the struggles for
redistribution and recognition, raised the social status of gays and lesbians in the
movement, as Ka Kurt and Ka Leslie state.

One can observe from the narratives that many of the members and even some
cadres of the movement badly need criticism and self-criticism sessions on gender
sensitivity to address their homophobia. Despite the ideal of social liberation that
the revolution has been fighting for, its fighters will continue to be far from perfect
so long as they allow themselves, whether consciously or unconsciously, to uphold
discriminatory practices. It should be noted that the problem of discrimination is
not the end itself, for it only mirrors the problem of subjectivism in the CPP , where
members are judged without a correct and concrete premise. Subjectivism is a
seemingly organizational disease within the revolutionary movement, reminiscent
of its experience with the anti-deep penetration agent (DPA ) campaigns in the
latter half of the 1980s. Lualhati Abreu, in her memoir titled Dusking, Dawning
(Agaw Dilim, Agaw Liwanag), narrates how her human rights were violated by her
very own comrades in Southern Tagalog during the heights of Oplan Missing Link
(OPML ) in 1988. While she was able to survive what she called the “Nightmares of
1988,” a handful of comrades, whom she was close, did not. The anti-DPA hysteria
would only end with the intervention of the Executive Committee of the CPP
Central Committee. It turned out that the top brass of the communist movement

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 Briones / Rainbow Guerrillas 514

had already brought down a restraining order to stop the punishments but to no
avail; the revolutionary authorities in Mauban, Quezon (where Abreu and scores of
comrades were detained) did not heed. The interrogators of the Task Force OPML ,
whom Abreu describes as “young and neophytes in the revolution,” did not conduct
a proper investigation in the first place (2-7). Essentially, it is subjectivism and the
lack of revolutionary education among the members that violated Abreu’s rights
and killed her close comrades.

Despite the nightmares that she experienced and albeit she is no longer with
the movement, Abreu still believes in the revolutionary struggle and its aspirations.
Like her, Ka Duday, as a gay guerrilla in Mindanao, is optimistic despite the
discrimination that gays like them suffer from their comrades. They explicitly state
that gays and lesbians should be at the forefront of the struggle against gender
discrimination, and remind everyone that members of the LGBT community, like
the toiling masses, also suffer labor exploitation. From the narratives, the integration
of the politics of redistribution and the politics of recognition is visible. Gay and
lesbian guerrillas view their fight against patriarchy and gender discrimination
as an extension of the revolutionary movement’s engagement in class struggle
through the national democratic revolution.

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 Briones / Rainbow Guerrillas 515

CONCLUSION

The narratives of the eight gay and lesbian guerrillas show that patriarchy and gender
discrimination still exist within the revolutionary movement. However, due to the
unprecedented pro-LGBT policies that the Communist Party of the Philippines
and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines have formulated and
implemented since 1992, homosexual guerrillas are optimistic about continuously
fighting discrimination within the movement. Under the guidance of the party,
these guerrillas consciously integrate their struggle for recognition to the struggle
for redistribution, for they see themselves as integrated, and not detached—as part
of the national democratic revolution. This revolutionary consciousness hence
prevented the emergence of cultural reification in their party units in Mindanao.

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 Briones / Rainbow Guerrillas 516

Note

1. Hereafter, the singular ‘they’ and other forms such as ‘them,’ ‘their,’ and ‘theirself,’
which are gender-neutral and third-person pronouns, were used for this study
to refer to each of the LGBT guerrillas.

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