Samidoun mourns the passing of Ka Louie Jalandoni, Philippines liberation struggler and former political prisoner

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network mourns the passing of Ka Louie, Luis Jalandoni, on Saturday, 7 June 2025 at the age of 90 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. A lifelong struggler in the revolutionary movement of the Philippines, a true internationalist, a former political prisoner and a true friend of Palestine, he passed away surrounded by his wife, Coni Ledesma, his comrades, and his beloved family members.

Ka Louie was a senior political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines, and was formerly a Catholic priest; his wife, Coni Ledesma, was formerly a nun. He and Ledesma were imprisoned in 1972 and released in 1974 before they went into exile in the Netherlands, alongside Jose Maria Sison, the founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines. He served as chief peace negotiator on behalf of the armed revolutionary movement of the Philippines between 1989 and 2016; in 2022, he was designated a “terrorist” by the Philippine government of Rodrigo Duterte.

Ka Louie was a committed internationalist who was always very interested in hearing about developments in the Palestinian resistance. Always voicing his support of the Palestinian resistance, of all its factions, as an expression of the Palestinian people’s struggle for liberation and return. He saw Palestine, especially since the battle of Seif Al Quds in 2021, as global frontline of the anti-imperialist struggle against US imperialism, also the principal enemy of the Filipino people. Israel was to him a US and European colony in the region, that had to be destroyed in order to bring peace and justice to the people of Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and the entire region.

In the early 1980s, he travelled to Lebanon, where he met with the Palestinian revolutionaries as a representative of the NDFP and the CPP, visiting Palestinian refugee camps and meeting with the resistance, then led by the Palestine Liberation Organization and its constituent factions. He expressed profound admiration for the Palestinian resistance, especially in Gaza, where, despite the brutal siege by land, air and sea, the resistance was able to develop great capacity to not only defend itself against US-Israeli aggression, but launch attacks through creative and sophisticated means — the development of rockets, the innovation of the tunnel system, and other offensive military capabilities.

He always expressed great concern for the Palestinian people in exile as well, especially in Europe and the Netherlands, where he was living in exile himself. He participated in countless mass demonstrations for Palestine, carrying the Palestinian flag and also the flag of Samidoun.

Himself a former political prisoner in the Philippines, held in solitary confinement for over a year in 1973, Ka Louie always called for the immediate release of all thousands of Palestinian political prisoners. Ka Louie regularly requested information and sought to learn about the situation of the Palestinian prisoners, the repression they face and also their struggle for freedom.

From Palestine and the Philippines, the revolutionary liberation movements are on the front lines of struggle for justice and liberation for their people, confronting imperialism, exploitation and occupation. The Zionist regime — “Israel” — is also an enemy of the Filipino people, especially through the selling of arms to multiple fascist governments up to the present day, amid the ongoing genocide it is carrying out in occupied Palestine.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses its condolences to his wife, Coni Ledesma, his family and loved ones, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the Communist Party of the Philippines, all of his comrades and the revolutionary movements of the Philippines and the world. His internationalist commitment will live on and continue to blossom in the collective anti-imperialist struggle that unites the revolutionaries from the liberated zones of the Philippines with those who emerge from the tunnels in Gaza, with our global movement for liberation, confronting zionism, colonialism, capitalism and imperialism.