Felicisimo Macapagal

Born Dec. 5, 1914, in San Julian, Nueva Ecija Province. Figure in the Philippine Communist movement.

The son of a Tagalog peasant, Macapagal joined the peasant movement in 1932. In 1938 he became a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines from December 1941 to 1945, he headed a partisan detachment that operated in the Japanese rear. In 1945, Macapagal helped form a united popular front, the Democratic Alliance. From 1948 to 1951 he took part in an armed partisan struggle against government troops. Macapagal was imprisoned in 1951. After his release in 1955, he resumed his participation in the peasant movement. In 1959 he established the Free Union of Peasants in Nueva Ecija Province. Macapagal became a member of the Central Committee of the CPP in 1967 and was elected general secretary of the Central Committee in 1970.