The League of Students paid tribute today to Ian Dorado and Tanya Domingo, LFS members from the University of the Philippines who were ambushed by government forces in Bulacan last week.

They add to the list of youth and students who were killed in the last two weeks by government raids against guerilla positions, which included Kemberly Luna, of the Mindanao State University and Ian Maderazo, former student leader of UP Los Banos.

“Ian and Tanya left the comforts of university life to embrace the armed revolution as NPA guerillas in the countryside, knowing full well that revolutionary force was indispensable in the fight for national democracy,” This was the statement of Terry Ridon, National Chairperson of the League of Filipino Students, as the LFS criticized the desperation of the Arroyo government in heightening attacks against revolutionary forces under Oplan Bantay Laya II and achieve its pipe dream of reducing the armed movement to ‘inconsequentiality’.

Ridon said that Ian and Tanya were prodigious and talented artists from the prestigious UP College of Fine Arts, where many National Artists for the Visual Arts hailed.

“But instead of merely creating art for moneyed patrons, Ian and Tanya were involved in producing art for the benefit of our exploited people, as when Tanya made a large mural for striking Kowloon House workers in Quezon City last year to express the workers’ aspirations for better working conditions,” Ridon said.

He said that by joining the NPA, Ian and Tanya proved that the Arroyo government had been lying to its teeth that the NPA has been reduced into a small group of ragtag bandits terrorizing the countryside.

“On the contrary, Ian and Tanya are proof that the national democratic revolution is alive and well, that it is capable of achieving its pronouncements of advancing the phase of its revolution in the next five years.”

Ridon also noted that the two UP students joined the armed underground during the regime of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“Terrible working conditions, unfulfilled promises and ultimate puppetry to imperialism and the local ruling classes by Mrs. Arroyo have compelled many students like Ian and Tanya to join the NPA. It is proof that GMA is the number one recruiter of the NPA today.”
Ridon said that no amount of fascist threats or killings can prevent the ‘wave upon wave’ of youth and students in joining the armed revolution in the countryside, as long as the ruling ‘rotten system’ exists.

“For advancing the national democratic struggle, in its highest, finest form, we pay tribute to you, Ian Dorado and Tanya Domingo,” Ridon finally said.