‘They died too soon’: Tabuk CIO Amilig recalls how brilliant comrades lost life to armed movement

Tabuk City, Kalinga – Narrating her experiences as a former member of a progressive left-leaning organization during her college years, Tabuk City Information Officer Aurora Amilig recalled how many of her brilliant young comrades lost their lives to the armed movement.

“As a 19-year-old activist, I was ready to die for freedom. Looking back now, I realize it would have been a waste. Many of my comrades – brilliant young people who could have been scholars, reformers, or leaders – died too soon. They were reduced to numbers, forgotten by the very movement they served. Only their families remember them,” Amilig recounted during the formal declaration of Tabuk City under the “State of Stable Internal Peace and Security” on March 23.

In her talk, Amilig shared that she joined a left-leaning student organization during her sophomore year in 1989 at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. She said she joined the group to call for the removal of U.S. military bases in the Philippines.

Having been taught by the movement that love for country comes before anything else, Amilig said she participated in every rally, including one event where they marched from Diliman to Clark Air Base for three days. Using her own allowance, she also traveled to Rizal, the Bicol Region, Baguio City, Cavite, and Tagaytay for immersion. Moreover, she recalled that she went as far as breaking her parents’ hearts by telling them she was no longer their child, but “a child of the universe.”

While she was determined to fight for freedom, justice, and truth, Amilig said she began doubting the movement when she was made to choose between the organization and her sister. Despite her growing skepticism, she continued with her immersion, which included a series of lectures before the final indoctrination. It was during this stage that she again questioned the organization for telling them they would be known by numbers rather than by their names.

Losing friends

Amilig said she did not complete the indoctrination process after she felt fear for the first time due to the presence of strangers lurking near their dugout. This prompted her to return home. Months later, she read in the newspaper that her Dean’s Lister friend from Cagayan had died in an armed encounter in Quezon Province.

The final straw for Amilig came when she saw her comrades in the organization celebrating the “heroic death” of her friend without shedding a tear to mourn his tragic demise. She added that more students on immersion also died in encounters in the Bicol Region.

“The so-called revolution that glorified them failed even to grieve them. That was the reason enough for me to leave for good,” she stressed.

‘UP is defined by great liberal “middle”’

From her experience as a UP student, Amilig asserted that UP is defined by a “great liberal middle”—liberal in spirit, not in partisanship. She added that the university’s true heart lies in the freedom to think, speak, question, and teach.

“Yet despite everything, I still believe in the enduring value of academic freedom, the freedom to disagree. True leaning requires debate and dissent. We must accept confrontation when it arises from genuine thought, rather than punish or suppress it,” she expressed.