During the launch of former New People’s Army (NPA) leader Eddie L. Quitoriano’s memoir Deeper Ground, Darker Shadows: The Making of a Mindanao Rebel, former cadres retold stories of their experiences taking up armed struggle, stressing that revolutionary and progressive movements must remain capable of confronting their own failures if they are to move forward. 

The memoir traces how Quitoriano rebuilt his life, reintegrated into mainstream society, and pursued a career beyond the revolutionary movement.

Recalling the Communist Party of the Philippines’ (CPP) experience with internal errors and subsequent efforts at rectification, Quitoriano underscored that the book portrays the effects that it had on former revolutionaries returning to civilian life.

“We choose to lose ourselves. You submit yourself to something bigger. I don’t want to say that it’s about me. It’s actually about me looking at myself in that story. But the book is about the story of us,” he said.

Kampanyang Ahos, which Quitoriano referred to in his book, was an anti-infiltration campaign carried out by the CPP’s Mindanao Committee in the 1980s amid fears that government agents had penetrated the revolutionary movement, with CPP documents acknowledging serious errors in the campaign and the failure of the party’s central leadership to immediately stop it and investigate its extent. 

Providing his insights, former rural banker and NPA cadre Joel Rodriguez emphasized that successful transition is ultimately about rebuilding trust and social relationships, rather than simply providing economic assistance to former rebels.

“The most important in transitioning is not the re-training, it’s not actually the exchange of cash to firearms or employment, it’s all about new relationships. Regaining that kind of relationship also means rebuilding trust, and I think that’s what you will also read in the book of Ed Quitoriano. Social cohesion is important in the transition.”

Meanwhile, award-winning author and former Southern Tagalog CPP committee member Robert Francis Garcia pointed out that Quitoriano’s memoir offers a deeper understanding of the Philippine revolutionary movement through his life and experiences.

“Sa pagbabasa ng libro, one cannot help but reflect on the nature of the CPP-NPA, the revolutionary movement, [bilang] ’yung mapagpalayang kilusan.”

Garcia highlighted that the memoir’s biggest merit is that Quitoriano’s story reveals the “essence and nature” of the revolutionary movement.

The book launch was held on September 30 in Davao City.