Highest Salute to Filipino Revolutionary Luis “Ka Louie” Jalandoni

Statement of the ILPS

The International League of Peoples’ Struggle gives the highest salute to Filipino revolutionary Luis Jalandoni, who passed away on 7 June 2025. We offer our heartfelt condolences to his family and loved ones, as together we also mourn the loss of “Ka Louie,” who was a beloved leader in the national democratic movement of the Philippines and anti-imperialist struggle worldwide.

Ka Louie dedicated his life to serving the people. Though he grew up in a wealthy family, his work as a priest in the rural communities in the Philippines exposed him to the daily struggle of peasants and workers, driving him to immerse deeply among the poorest and most exploited people in the country. He was one of the founders of the Christians for National Liberation (CNL) and became a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), choosing to leave the priesthood and join the revolutionary movement.

Ka Louie persisted in organizing during the many years of martial law in the Philippines, even after surviving imprisonment and constant threats to his life under the fascist Marcos dictatorship. He was assigned to leading international relations work for the CPP and also became the International Representative of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), committing himself to building solidarity abroad for the Philippine revolution. He was granted political asylum in the Netherlands, where he played a key role in establishing the NDFP office.

For many decades to follow, Ka Louie blazed the trail for political exilees who would carry high the torch of the Philippine revolution though physically separated from their homeland. Ka Louie educated countless people’s organizations, governments, movements, parties, church congregations, students, unions, migrants and others about the root causes of the Filipino people’s suffering and the NDFP’s program for national and social liberation. His international work also brought him to countries around the globe, where he extended solidarity to revolutions and movements fighting against imperialism and reactionary regimes. Ka Louie’s warm and genuine international solidarity was always felt by visitors he greeted at the NDFP office in the Netherlands, including numerous ILPS members since the founding of the League in the Netherlands in 2001.

For more than 20 years, Ka Louie also chaired the Peace Negotiating Panel of the NDFP in its peace talks with the Philippine government. In negotiations, Ka Louie never capitulated to the reactionary government’s demands for the New People’s Army to disarm or schemes of localized peace talks aimed at dividing the revolution. He never wavered in representing the NDFP’s stance that substantive agreements must be first forged on comprehensive social, economic, political and constitutional reforms that lay the basis for resolving the roots of the armed conflict before there could be consideration of disposition of arms. In convenings of the ILPS Commission 4, on the Cause of Just Peace, Ka Louie expounded on the NDFP’s use of peace negotiations as an arena of struggle which should be maximized to promote the people’s aspirations for a just peace–a peace based on the people fighting to attain national sovereignty, genuine democracy and social justice.

The ILPS pays tribute to Ka Louie for his tireless service to the people of the Philippines and the world. Let us honor his revolutionary spirit and follow his example by continuing to fight for a new and better world, free from the evils of imperialism and all reaction.

Signed,

International League of Peoples’ Struggle