Luis Taruc (21 June 1913-4 May 2005) was a Filipino resistance leader who led the Hukbalahap movement from 1942 to 1950, fighting against the Japanese during World War II and against the Philippine government after the war's end.
Biography[]
Luis Taruc was the son of sharecropping peasants in Luzon, and he was educated at Manila University and in the 1930s took up the cause of landless peasants, who were particularly affected by the Great Depression. In 1935, he joined the Socialist Party of the Philippines and the Philippine Anti-Fascist Front. In 1942, he formed the Hukbalahap on Luzon, and became its commander-in-chief. By 1945, his forces had almost total control of the rural areas of the island, and welcomed the return of the US liberation forces against the Japanese. In 1946, he was elected to the House of Representatives. When denied his seat, he returned to his guerrilla activities at the head of a People's Liberation Army. He finally surrendered in 1954, and he was imprisoned until 1968. He died in Quezon City in 2005 at the age of 91.