KARAPATAN salutes soldier-turned-activist Dante Simbulan

KARAPATAN salutes Ka Dante Simbulan, former political prisoner during Marcos Sr.’s martial law, its former National Council member at large (2012-2018) and Malaya Movement US co-convenor.

Ka Dante, a captain at the Philippine Army, taught at the Philippine Military Academy, where he hosted a lecture of Prof. Jose Maria Sison on the mercenary tradition of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. He left the PMA and resigned his commission as a colonel.

In 1974, he was imprisoned without charges in Camp Bonifacio and Camp Crame, while various groups including Amnesty International campaigned for his release as prisoner of conscience.

After his release, he sought asylum in the US. While in exile, he campaigned against the Marcos dictatorship, pointing out the regime’s accountability for the human rights violations and the billions of public funds stolen by the Marcoses and their cronies, through the Church Coalition on Human Rights in the Philippines.

In the past decade, Ka Dante served as a strong voice for people’s rights in the Philippines, having participated in activities of the International Coalition on Human Rights in the Philippines – US such as the International People’s Tribunal in 2015 and in the advocacy efforts in Washington DC.

In 2010, Ka Dante published a book on the Philippine ruling elites in “The Modern Principalia: The Historical Evolution of the Philippine Ruling Oligarchy.” In 2016, he published his memoirs, “Whose Side Are We On?,” which outlines the historical context of his work as a soldier-turned-activist. In 2018, he published his masteral thesis on the socialist movement in the Philippines through a book, “When the Rains Come, Will the Grass not Grow Again.”

In 2019, he published an open letter to Philippine government officials including former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte, as an adopted member of the PMA, and several of his mistahs, questioning their adherence to the PMA Honor Code, and demanded justice for thousands killed in the drug war, in the massacre of peasants, workers, students, priests, lawyers, journalists, etc.

KARAPATAN extends our condolences to Ka Dante’s family and his colleagues and fellow activists in the US, as we grieve with them on his passing.

We thank Ka Dante for his support to KARAPATAN and all victims of human rights violations, and his generous mentoring of human rights activists in the US and in the Philippines. We vow to uphold Ka Dante’s legacy of service to the Filipino people.