Tribute to Markus Bakoy a beloved colleague
by JORIS SMEETS

“Everyone of us must know that he or she can be the next victim. We all have to be prepared that sooner or later one of us will meet the same fate as Pepe and Albert.” The memory of these words that some of my friends of CPA spoke to me on the day of the wake of Abert Terredaño, is very bitter now.

On the morning of the ninth of June I opened my mailbox as usual. There were several new e-mails, but one immediately caught my eye.

From: Abie
Subject: Makoy’s dead

For a moment I couldn’t breathe. I started to read hastily. I couldn’t believe what I saw: Makoy was killed.

On the evening of June 8th, he had just finished his dinner in an eatery along the way from Tabuk to Baguio. When he returned to the bus, someone jumped out of a van and ran up to Makoy. Shots rang out and Makoy fell to the ground. The woman next to him screamed in panic and was also hit. Makoy was rushed to the hospital, but nothing could be done for him anymore. The woman died on the spot. Fortunately, Makoy’s eldest son, who accompanied him, was not hurt.

During my internship in the CPA office in Baguio, Makoy was a good friend of mine. As I write this, I hold in my hand a small letter that he wrote to me during my stay in Dupag Proper. Since he didn’t have his cell phone at that time, he had this note delivered to me to wish me a happy new year. That’s how he was: very thoughtful, always concerned about your well-being. The note ends with “your bro Markus”. While reading it again, so many thoughts are going through my head.

Together with Makoy, I have undertaken the bus trip from Tabuk to Baguio several times (by the way, I remember well how worried he was that time when I became very ill on the bus). He took this 11 hour ride very often. He and his family have a small house in Dagupan, Tabuk, but he spent most of his time in Baguio. He sometimes told he found it hard to travel back and forth all the time and not being able to spend a lot of time with his wife and children. “My wife is complaining”, he once joked, “no time for love!”. His daughter would sometimes try to hide his bag so he couldn’t leave. He was always so busy. Often he was running from one meeting to another or he spent hours on the computer. I always wandered where he kept getting his perseverance. Already since the seventies he was involved in the struggle against the Chico Dam. Since then, his dedication to the fight for self-determination of the Igorot people has only increased. His merits in the progressive mass movement are impressive. The list of organisations he was leading or taking part in seems almost endless.

During my six month stay in the Cordillera I spent most of my time in Kalinga, the province where Makoy was born and raised. I always liked to go to the CPA office in Kalinga. Makoy was very much respected and loved in that place. I can’t even start to imagine how his friends there must have felt when they found out about what had happened to him. I’m also thinking of the people in Tomiangan, his place of birth, and Dupag, the sitio next to it. Many of his family members, that also belong to the Malbong tribe, live there. In the CPA office in Baguio there’s a lot of pain and disbelief too. When I called Joan there the morning I heard the news, she told me that everybody was devastated. In her voice I noticed that she was shattered, but nevertheless I recognised determination and strength as well. She told me she had been so busy making the facts of this brutal killing public, that she did not even had the time to grieve . I listened to her and couldn’t make up my mind whether I wanted to be in Baguio again or not…

To all the people in the office, especially the young staff members, Makoy was like an uncle. Even I myself looked upon him as somebody that was always ready to help you out, to make a quick joke or just to have a little chat. He would make you feel at ease. From time to time, I used to spend the night with Sam and Makoy in the office. Sometimes we would get a bottle of Red Horse in the sari-sari store down the street. While sharing a bottle one night in February Makoy told me about a hitlist that circulated in the armed forces. He believed he was also mentioned as a target. That really hurt me. Although he knew his life might be in danger, he never stopped to fight for people’s rights, even if this meant a great sacrifice for him and his family.

It is beyond doubt that the Cordillera People’s Alliance lost one of its most valuable and dedicated leaders and at the same time one of its warmest, open and humblest personalities. When I told Makoy’s story to one of my friends here in Belgium, he said to me: “This guy was actually a hero.” I’m pretty sure he’s right… ###

This article was originally published in Dutch in the International Action for Liberation (INTAL) website on June 13, 2006.