| “Ka Popoy” Lagman | |
|---|---|
| Born | Filemon Lagman March 17, 1953 |
| Died | February 6, 2001 (aged 47) University of the Philippines-Diliman |
| Nationality | Filipino |
| Citizenship | Filipino |
| Occupation | Marxist theoretician, Labor Group Leader |
| Known for | Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP),Kapatiran ng mga Pangulo ng Unyon sa Pilipinas(KPUP), |
Filemon Lagman (March 17, 1953—February 6, 2001), popularly known as Ka Popoy was a revolutionary socialist and workers' leader in the Philippines. He shares the ideology of Marxism-Leninism.[1] He split with the Communist Party of the Philippines in 1991 to form the Solidarity of Filipino Workers (BMP).
From the split, he led the formation of the Partido ng Manggagawang Pilipino (Filipino Workers' Party), an underground revolutionary socialist party, which, after his death, merged with the Sosyalistang Partido ng Paggawa (Socialist Party of Labor) and the Partido para sa Proletaryong Demokrasya (Party for Proletarian Democracy).
During the First Quarter Storm, he was a member of Samahan ng Demokratikong Kabataan (Democratic Association of the Youth) in the 1970s. After only a year in college at the University of the Philippines, he decided to go underground and do full-time organizing work in the factories and urban poor communities in the northern sector of Metro Manila. Ka Popoy was elected Secretary of the Manila-Rizal Regional Party Committee of the CPP in the mid-70's and spearheaded the broad formation which challenged the Marcos dictatorship in 1978 Batasan Pambansa elections. The Central Committee of the CPP admonished Ka Popoy and the whole regional committee for advocating participation in 1978 Batasan Pambansa elections because it ran counter to the CC call to head to the counryside to wage armed struggle against the dictatorship. Ka Popoy was only to return at the helm of the Manila-Rizal Regional Party Committee after the EDSA uprising of 1986. In spite of the differences with the central leadership, Ka Popoy strived harder to strengthen revolutionary work in the capital city.
Ka Popoy is also known to be the only Party leader that during the struggles with the CPP that put forward the most comprehensive and in-depth critique against the basic Party documents of CPP-NPA which are now popularly known as Counter-Thesis 1 (PSR: A Semi-feudal Alibi for Protracted War, PPDR: Class Line vs. Mass Line and PPW: A New-Type Revolution of the Wrong Type) and Counter-Thesis 2 (On the Reorientation of the Party Work and the Reorganization of the Party Machinery).
He was the first prominent victim of a political assassination under the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, carried out in Bahay ng Alumni, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City on February 8, 2001.[2] His assassination is widely speculated to have been carried out by his former associates in the Communist Party. The assassins and the culprits have not yet been apprehended as of 2008.[3] On July 2007, the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office decided to drop the case on eight suspected communist assassins since the witnesses were unable to attended the preliminary investigations.[4]
His first wife was Dodi Garduce, while second wife was Bobbie Jopson (sister of another revolutionary martyr Edgar Jopson). His brother is current Albay congressman Edcel Lagman.