Remembering Luis Jalandoni

We are saddened with the passing of our old friend and high school classmate in La Salle, Luis “Louie” Jalandoni, in Utrecht, The Netherlands last June 7. He was 90-years-old. Louie Jalandoni was a prominent revolutionary figure and the longtime senior adviser to the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). He was instrumental in the peace talks between the left and the Philippine government.

- JOSE DE VENECIA JR. FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE

A former Roman Catholic priest, he was born to an aristocratic family in Negros Island. He left the priesthood in the early 1970s and joined the communist movement.

In the early 1990s, we journeyed to The Netherlands several times as speaker of the House, for meetings, sometimes in secret, with Louie Jalandoni and the late Jose Ma. “Joma” Sison, founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines. Those were difficult but necessary dialogues, held in pursuit of a just and lasting peace with the communist insurgents.