CANDABA, the town in Pampanga that earned notoriety as the hotbed of the communist-led Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan rebellion in the late 1940s to the 60s, will commemorate on Saturday, July 18, the 60th anniversary of the assassination of former Mayor Anastacio Limjoco Gallardo, whose death remains one of Pampanga’s most consequential postwar political killings and a defining episode in the campaign against the Huk insurgency.
The account of Gallardo’s life and death draws from Candaba municipal records, ‘Candaba: Balayan ning Leguan’ by Romeo Cabusao a copy of which is stored at the Center for Kapampangan Studies at Holy Angel University and a declassified 1967 US Department of State intelligence memorandum.
According to the Candaba municipal government, Gallardo served as mayor from 1946 to 1949, from 1952 to 1956, and again from 1961 until his death in 1966.
Cabusao writes that Gallardo’s relationship with the Huk movement reflected the shifting political landscape of postwar Pampanga.
According to the book, Gallardo’s name appeared on a Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan (HMB) roster in 1946 which Cabusao interprets as evidence of an early understanding between the organization and the newly elected mayor. He later allied himself with then-Governor Sotero Baluyut’s Kawal ning Kapayapan (Soldiers of Peace), despite Baluyut’s long-standing political rivalry with Don Pedro Abad Santos, whose former secretary was Huk supremo Luis Taruc.
Cabusao writes that Gallardo’s political alignment with Baluyut eventually placed him in conflict with the HMB. Although Gallardo was no longer in public office during the Candaba Massacre on March 22, 1951, the book states that he had already become a target of the Huk movement, then associated with Tomas Calma, also known as Commander Sol.
Residents of Candaba say that the Huks raided the town on Maundy Thursday, while the Last Supper Mass was being celebrated to catch Gallardo in church. Fortunately, Gallardo was delayed in coming home and was not able to attend mass, and thus, survived.
On June 26, 1966, President Ferdinand Marcos convened governors, mayors and other Central Luzon officials at Camp Julian Olivas in San Fernando, Pampanga, to discuss the government’s campaign against the insurgency.
According to Cabusao and other published historical accounts, Gallardo was the first mayor to volunteer to organize what became the Anti-Huk Mayors’ League of Pampanga, an organization created to coordinate local government support for anti-insurgency efforts.
Less than a month later, on the morning of July 18, 1966, Gallardo left Candaba for Camp Olivas, where he was scheduled to meet provincial officials before proceeding to Malacañang for an audience with Marcos and his oath taking in the Nacionalista Party, then the ruling party.
He never made it.
On his way to San Fernando, Gallardo and companions, who were riding a World War II-vintage jeep, had to pass through the unpaved road at the then-Barrio Calinan, now part of Barangay Santa Lucia in Santa Ana, the town next to Candaba. Deep ruts slowed the jeep driven by Cpl. Diego Maglanque of the Candaba Police as it traveled beneath rows of mango trees lining both sides of the dusty road.
Cabusao’s book said that armed men wearing what looked like Army uniforms lay in wait.
As the jeep approached a parked 6×6 truck, gunfire erupted from concealed positions on both sides of the road.
Gallardo was killed along with Philippine Constabulary Sgt. Manuel Dacrosin, Patrolman Cirilo Balagtas, Barrio Captain Nicanor Turla, Maglanque and Isaac Manio, whom Cabusao identifies as a witness in the kidnapping of Mapanique Barrio Captain Jose Manimbo weeks earlier.
According to the book, the ambush unfolded so quickly that Gallardo’s escorts were unable to return fire.
A declassified US Department of State intelligence memorandum dated April 1967 identified Gallardo as chairman of the Anti-Huk Mayors’ League of Pampanga and described his assassination as ‘the most flagrant act of terror” during a resurgence of Huk violence in Central Luzon.
The memorandum said Gallardo was killed while traveling to meet Marcos and noted that the Anti-Huk Mayors’ League became dormant after the attack as local officials feared similar reprisals. It also documented an increase in Huk assassinations and kidnappings as the Marcos administration intensified security operations and rural development programs aimed at suppressing the insurgency.
Six decades later, Gallardo’s assassination continues to be commemorated in Candaba as a pivotal moment in the town’s history and in Pampanga’s long struggle against the Huk movement.