AJLLP-USA: A Tribute to Dr. Ochie Baez- A True People’s Artist

“…Hirap ay Lunasan, pangaapi ay wakasan,
Ang bayan ay ipaglaban, ang bayan ay ipaglaban!”

Huwad na Kalayaan

by Dr. Ochie Baez.

The Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace (AJLPP) and all his comrades and friends in the United States, pay tribute to the departed Dr. Ochie Baez and express profound condolence to his family and relatives.

Ka. Ochie studied, worked and has been a stalwart of the Philippine movement in the United States ever since he emigrated to the continent in 1982 as an exchange student in the state of Minnesota.

Unlike the unrepentant self-serving renegades Walden Bello and Joel Rocamora, Ka Ochie was one of prominent the leaders and movers of UGNAYAN based in the Midwest that promoted international solidarity and linked the Philippine struggles to other community and people’s struggles in the United States.

UGNAYAN and other anti-martial law solidarity groups that remained faithful to the Philippine movement eventually corrected the mistakes of the Union of Democratic Filipinos (KDP) that wanted to form their own mainstream political party apart from the Philippine struggles.

Comrades and friends will never forget how he helped strategize and tacticize to build the Philippine movement in the United States until he left for Japan in 1988. Ka Ochie was not only a good scientist that he used his knowledge and skills for the people. He was also a cultural workers as evidenced by the songs he made that endures until today.

He made the lyrics for “Mutya” while a political prisoner in Manila during martial law and composed the song” Huwad na Kalayaan” that expresses the Filipino longings for independence and freedom.

We met Ka. Ochie for the first and the last time during the founding of the International League for People’s Struggle (ILPS) in the Netherlands in 2001 . It was a good opportunity for us to meet a people’s artist and a scientist for the people. It was the best and the good time to hear him play his own songs during the cultural night in Amsterdam.

We salute you- Ka Ochie and pay tribute to a servant of the masses and a fighter for our people. A patriot and a consistent internationalist for the working class.

AJLPP-USA
December 28, 3006