Underscoring the HUK problem
The Legioner, was the official monthly organ of the Philippines Legion, a veteran association
created by Manuel Roxas in 1948. Its contents were mainly military, which made it a very
interesting source to understand the military conflicts of the period from a Filipino perspective.
In all the issues hold in the UPD collection the Huk insurgent appears as a very important topic.
Underscoring the HUK problem was written for the number of February 1948 by Alejo S.
Santos, representative of the 2nd district of Bulacan, and it’s interesting for the crude photos
(courtesy of Manila Chronicle) that it included. Santos, former CO of the Bulacan Military Area
during the Ocuppation, defended that violence was not the best means to solve the problem and
confirmed first hand that the Huk, one of the best anti-japanese guerillas, never stayed away
from the ways of peace or terrorized the people of Bulacan until Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas’
efforts to ameliorate farmers' conditions (and its electoral victory) were neglected by the Partido
Liberal, whose measures were ineffective against landlord rule. In fact, the victims of the
military actions were the poor barrio residents that only attended to destroy feudalism, which
only fueled the conflict.
-
Fecha
-
February 1948
-
Fuente
-
“Underscoring the HUK problem”, The Legioner, Vol. I, N.º 9, February 1948, pp. 5, 21-22].
-
Relación
-
Kerkvliet, Benedict J. 2002. The Huk rebellion: A study of peasant revolt in the Philippines.
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Woods, Colleen. 2020. Freedom Incorporated: Anticommunism and Philippine Independence in
the Age of Decolonization. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/74494.
