Tribute to Comrade Fidel V. Agcaoili, anti-imperialist and internationalist

The International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) pays its highest respects and tribute to Comrade Fidel V. Agcaoili, veteran of the Philippine revolutionary movement and staunch anti-imperialist and internationalist. Comrade Agcaoili passed away on July 23, 2020 in Utrecht, The Netherlands at the age of 75. The ILPS also extends its deepest condolences to his widow and children, relatives, friends and comrades.

Comrade Fidel started on the revolutionary road as a student activist in the mid-60s along with Jose Maria Sison, the founder of the progressive youth organization Kabataang Makabayan (Patriotic Youth) and the founding Chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Comrade Fidel was arrested in the early 70s and was among the longest-held political prisoners detained by the Marcos fascist dictatorship. After his release from prison, he worked for sometime in building the legal democratic movement during the short-lived “democratic space” under the Cory Aquino regime after the dictator Marcos was ousted by a people’s uprising in February 1986. He was later assigned to do international work for the Philippine movement.

When peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) were started in 1995, Comrade Fidel became a member of the NDFP negotiating panel and served as its spokesperson. He later became the chairperson of the NDFP negotiating panel in October 2016 when Luis G. Jalandoni became an adviser after serving as head of the panel for more than two decades.

The ILPS is grateful for the valuable contributions of Comrade Fidel in building the ILPS as an international alliance of anti-imperialist and democratic mass organizations. He was involved in the work of the ILPS from the very beginning as representative of the International Network for Philippine Studies (INPS), a founding member of the ILPS. He continued to work for expanding and strengthening the ILPS until his death.

Before his untimely death, he was involved in the efforts of the ILPS together with other progressive organizations around the world to build the FRONT, a broad international anti-imperialist anti-fascist united front. The formation of such a united front is urgent in the face of the continuing depredations of imperialism against the world’s peoples as the world capitalist system undergoes unprecedented levels of crisis and disorder.

The ILPS salutes Comrade Fidel Agcaoili for his invaluable service to the noble aspirations of the world’s peoples for a new and better world, free from the evils of imperialism and all reaction. Such aspirations are what the ILPS is fighting for.

Long live the memory of Comrade Fidel Agcaoili!
Down with imperialism and all reaction!
Long live international solidarity!