The Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon (lit. 'People's Army Against the Japanese'), better known by the abbreviation Hukbalahap, was a Filipino communist guerrilla movement formed by the farmers of Central Luzon. They were originally formed to fight the Japanese, but extended their fight into a rebellion against the Philippine government, known as the Hukbalahap rebellion in 1946. It was eventually put down through a series of reforms and military victories by Defense Secretary, and later President, Ramon Magsaysay.
Constituted in March 1942, the Hukbalahap was to be part of a broad united front resistance to the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. This original intent is reflected in its name.
By 1950, the Communist Party of the Philippines (PKP) had resolved to reconstitute the organization as the armed wing of a revolutionary party, prompting a change in the official name to Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan, likely in emulation of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
Notwithstanding this name change, the HMB continued to be popularly known as the Hukbalahap, and the English-speaking press continued to refer to it and its members, interchangeably, as the Huks (Singular: Huk) during the whole period between 1945 and 1952.
A monument dedicated to the Huks in Cabiao, Nueva Ecija, was constructed to honor their actions during World War II.
On October 14, 2023, the Luis M. Taruc Hukbalahap Monument at Garden of Peace Memorial Park in Santa Monica, San Luis, Pampanga, was unveiled to honor about 400 guerrilla fighters (including Luis Taruc, the late Antonio Sumang and 96-year-old Praxedes Clarin, in the statue, one of the nine surviving Huks) including Olimpia Ingal, Narciso Garcia, Josefa Tolentino, and Clemente Miranda, all 94, Dominga Sanchez, Anastacia Sali, and Natalia Lacanlale, all 98 and Francisca Salas, 99).
The Hukbalahap movement has deep roots in the Spanish encomienda, a system of grants to reward soldiers who had conquered New Spain, established in 1570. This developed into a system of exploitation. In the 19th century, Filipino landlordism, under the Spanish colonization, arose further abuses.
After the opening of ports in Manila, Luzon's economy was transformed to meet the demands for exports of rice, sugar, and tobacco. Landowners increased the demands on farmers who rented parcels of land. These demands included increased rents, demands for proceeds from the sale of crops, and predatory lending agreements to fund farm improvements.
Only after the coming of the Americans were reforms initiated to lessen tensions between tenants and landlords. The reforms, however, did not solve the problems, and with growing political consciousness produced by education, peasants began to unite under educated but poor leaders. The most potent of these organizations was the Hukbalahap, which began as a resistance organization against the Japanese but ended as an anti-government resistance movement in 1946.
The idea of a guerrilla organization was conceived as early as October 1941, months before the Philippines' entry to World War II. As early as 1941, Juan Feleo, a well-known peasant leader and member of the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP), had begun to mobilize peasants in his home province of Nueva Ecija for the conflict. Pedro Abad Santos, The founding member of the Socialist Party of the Philippines, had also ordered Luis Taruc to mobilize forces in Pampanga.
At the outbreak of World War II in the Philippines and the capture of Manila, top-ranking leaders of the PKP were captured by the Japanese military. Crisanto Evangelista, its founder, was among those who were captured and executed in 1942. Abad Santos was similarly captured but was released in 1943. Dr. Vicente Lava took the reins of the PKP and tried to re-organize the party.
In February 1942, a "struggle conference" was held in Cabiao, Nueva Ecija to discuss organization, strategy, and tactics. Members of the PKP, the Popular Front Party, the League for the Defense of Democracy, KPMP, AMT, and KAP convened to create a structure for unified resistance against the Japanese.
A united front tactic was agreed upon as a means of attracting the broadest sections of population, not necessarily communists. A three-front resistance was agreed upon: military, political, and economic. The military aim was to harass the Japanese continuously and keep it off-balance so as to prevent it from focusing on activities aimed at winning the goodwill of the people. The political aim was to discredit the Japanese-sponsored republic and build the concept of a functioning democracy as a grass roots level, while the economic objective was to prevent the enemy's looting. The result was the creation of the Central Luzon Bureau (CLB), an organization meant to lead resistance against the Japanese. Key positions were filled out as follows:
At the advent of this conference, several armed groups were immediately organized and began operating in Central Luzon. A significant event was on March 13, 1942, when a squadron headed by Felipa Culala (alias Dayang-Dayang) encountered and defeated Japanese forces in Mandili, Candaba, Pampanga. News of Culala's successful raid raised morale for the resistance fighters.
On March 29, 1942, peasant leaders met in a forest clearing located in Sitio Bawit, Barrio San Julian, at the junction of Tarlac, Pampanga, and Nueva Ecija to form a united organization. Hukbong Bayan Laban sa mga Hapon was chosen as the name of the organization. After the meeting, a military committee was formed with Taruc (Supremo), Castro Alejandrino (Vice Commander), Bernardo Poblete (Tandang Banal), and Culala as members. The Hukbalahap high command was also joined by the military commissariat; a party apparatus that provided guidance to the Huks.
The CLB was regarded as the "wartime version of the PKP". While PKP officials did assume important positions in the Huk structure, the movement encompassed more that simply members of the PKP and its affiliated organizations.
Robert Lapham reports either Luis Taruc or Casto Alejandrino met with Lieutenant Colonel Claude Thorp at Camp Sanchez in the spring of 1942, and the conferees agreed to cooperate, share equipment and supplies, with the Americans providing trainers. However, though the Huks fought the Japanese, they also "tried to thwart United States Army Forces in the Far East guerrillas", "therefore, they were considered disloyal and were not accorded U.S. recognition or benefits at the end of the war."
After its inception, the group grew quickly and, by late summer in 1943, It was claimed to have 15,000 to 20,000 active men and women military fighters and 50,000 more in reserve. These fighters' weaponry was obtained primarily by stealing it from battlefields and downed planes left behind by the Japanese, Filipinos, and Americans. They fought Japanese troops, worked to subvert the Japanese tax-collection service, intercepted food and supplies to the Japanese troops, and created a training school where they taught political theory and military tactics based on Marxist ideas. In areas that the group controlled, they set up local governments (Sandatahang Tanod ng Bayan, Barrio United Defense Corps) and instituted land reforms, dividing up the largest estates equally among the peasants and often killing the landlords. In some cases, however, landlords were welcomed as participants in Huk resistance, swayed by anti-Japanese sympathies. PKP organizers quickly went to work to set up BUDCs in Huk controlled barrios, which contributed to its success as a resistance army, although in reality there was an overlap between independently formed barrio governments, "neighborhood committees" set up by the Japanese, and BUDCs.