An image of a modern heroine and the revolution

Review of Recca: From Diliman to the Cordilleras

Recca’s sister Jang Monte-Hernandez urges everyone to read the book, especially those who want to know why there is a raging revolution in the countryside and why the NPA remains a formidable force despite successive counterinsurgency campaigns of the past and present administrations.

By RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat.com

For city-bred Filipinos, revolution is seldom heard and never seen. According to newspapers, the “rebels” in the countryside are out to overthrow every administration. According to the military, the New People’s Army (NPA) is already a spent force.

The book Recca: From Diliman to the Cordilleras gives us a glimpse of the revolution and the revolutionaries.

A compilation of social media posts, statements, reports, testimonies, photographs, poems and personal letters about Recca Noelle Monte, the book takes us to the extraordinary life of a modern heroine.

A young, talented Recca entered UP Diliman in 1997. She became a member of the cultural group Alay Sining. Beyond the confines of the university, she immersed herself in the struggle of workers in SM and Philippine Airlines and of peasants in Mindoro. In 2002, at 22 years old, Recca decided to join the New People’s Army (NPA). She was brutally killed by government troops on Sept. 4, 2014. She had no gunshot wounds but autopsy report revealed she had blunt injuries on the head, face and chest.

Recca is so real in every page of the book. The entries form an image of a loving mother, a good daughter and sister, a true friend. At the same time, she was strong and brave – a dedicated cadre of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), a sharp shooter, a revolutionary willing to take on all tasks, small and big.

Former classmates and fellow activists in UP Diliman could not forget her wide grin, her husky singing voice and her passion to serve the people. In one of her emails, Recca, in her conversational Tagalog-English tone, urged her former classmates at the Manila Science High School to support the striking workers of SM. She explained how the SM workers were exploited in concrete terms, complete with her Grabe! and syemps expressions.

Her happy disposition did not change when she became a guerrilla fighter. In a tribute, a group of Kalinga women described Recca, known to them as Ka Tet, as cheerful and always smiling. They recalled how Ka Tet helped them in harvesting monggo even when it was raining. One of the women could not resist asking Ka Tet why she left behind her comfortable life to join the NPA. Recca responded, “Nauunawaan ko na makatwiran ang ipinaglalabang prinsipyo ng NPA kaya ko ito pinasok.”(I understand that the principles being fought for by the NPA are just.)

Her decision to join the armed revolution was well thought out, borne out of discernment and the belief that the oppressed and exploited in this land deserve to live with dignity.

In another letter posted at Peyups.com, Recca replied to an entry written by a former classmate who regretted not finishing her studies. She described how farmers in Kalinga do not have any farming tool, not even carabaos and how they are denied of basic social services. She narrated how the NPAs revived the spirit of bayanihan (collective action) to increase the volume of production, to raise the farm gate prices of agricultural products, among others. She said, “Hindi kailangan ng medalya at diploma para paglingkuran ang sambayanan.” (Medals and diploma are not needed in serving the Filipino people)

She was selfless. For her, her son was not her only child but also the children of the poor she had met. She cried in buckets when she had to leave her son but she persisted in what she called as “making this life worth living for all those dear to me.”

At the core of the woman warrior was so much love. In the same letter, Recca said that even her anger at the rotten system was a product of love for all the victims of structural violence.

Recca’s sister Jang Monte-Hernandez urges everyone to read the book, especially those who want to know why there is a raging revolution in the countryside and why the NPA remains a formidable force despite successive counterinsurgency campaigns of the past and present administrations.