Kumander Liwayway: The Beauty Queen Commander of Hukbalahap

IT is a collated experience for every coquette-loving, make-up guru, kikay girl to have an era wherein they would be disgusted by the idea of pink, lipstick, or wearing dresses because it just did not seem cool. It was the emo cringe feeling that was speaking instead of the cutesy little girl in a floral dress sitting in the corner of our brains. 

There were these stereotypes as well! These stereotypes of how a kikay girl should be the most prim and proper weak ballerina because that is just how it should be, or maybe that is how the media wanted us to view being a kikay. 

Somehow, we had standards of who could be what. A tall fat girl could not be a softy, an emo girl could never wear pink, a blonde school girl could never like rock music, and soldiers could not wear make-up. 

But Kumander Liwayway begs to differ, because why the hell should a soldier commander not be able to wear her red lipstick and dress into battle? 

Meet Remedios Gomez-Paraiso, best known as Kumander Liwayway—the beauty queen military commander of Hukbalahap (Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon). 

Now, that brand label raised a lot of questions, so let us start from the very beginning.

According to Positively Filipino, Remedios Gomez-Paraiso was already basking in her femininity through a lot of things, this mirrors from making perfumes and dresses to joining beauty pageants to sate her love for beauty and fashion. 

It was mentioned that she was very “graceful and pretty”. She gained attention as “such a beautiful woman” considering that her family was quite well known in Mexico, Pampanga as her father was a politician in the town. Basilio Gomez, Remedios’ father, became the leader of a group of people who were at the bottom of the social hierarchy. 

Basilio was fighting for the rights of these people to proper income, rights to their lands, and the right to education. This led him to be elected as the vice mayor of Mexico, Pampanga—this experience pushed Remedios to be exposed to the life of the people where she also engaged in their daily activities. 

Such a woman who would engage in such activities as riding a horse made Remedios look more beautiful in the eyes of the town, following this, she reached her fame as a local beauty queen.

However, such a beautiful life was put into hold when the Japanese military came into Mexico in 1942 seizing Basilio Gomez, which of course did not fall into the eyes of the invaders—it can be seen where Remedios’ bravery and courage came from. 

With the Japanese military’s cruelness, Basilio was tortured and killed. It did not stop there, his corpse was paraded all around the town for everyone to see—this lit a match inside Remedios that would soon turn into the largest fire inside someone as fearless as her. 

Following the death of her father, according to Kahimyang.com, Remedios immediately joined a group of communist guerrillas who gave her the name “Kumander Liwayway”, she was given the position of a nurse to help those who fought the Japanese military and those who came home with multiple injuries. 

With the sight of her people being tortured to death and hearing the stories of women being raped by the Japanese soldiers, it burned the fire within her. In a short while, Kumander Liwayway became the actual commander of a squadron leading several men into the battlefield. And the most exciting part of it all? 

Every time Kumander Liwayway would prepare for battle, she didn’t just wear her armory, instead she wore beautiful dresses and wore full-face make-up while adorning her lip with the prettiest shade of red lipstick. She was the image of beauty and bravery. 

The moment Kumander Liwayway decided to get ready beautifully as a battle commander, she began to be the image of beauty and bravery. She mothered in the 1940s and she continued to do so until her last breath in 2014 when she died at the age of 95. 

Before that, she continued to fight for the Filipinos until she was imprisoned for the first time, but after that, she then fought against the failed acknowledgment of those Filipinos who fought the Japanese Military.

She fought until she was imprisoned for the second time and her son was detained alongside her, that is when she decided that it was time to protect her child. 

But! Her decision to not fight against the government did not mean that she stopped being the mother that she was. She continued to dress herself up, look presentable, and up to the challenge of the new beauty trends whilst she was providing food and shelter for sought-after members of the communist organization she came from.

Until the end, she literally mothered them, until she reached a point where her adventures as the kikay kumander were a story she told to her grandchildren. 

Kumander Liwayway is one of the most underrated Filipina heroes who deserves as much acknowledgment as other Filipinas who fought in their sayas or their bolos. Kumander Liwayway mentioned that she was not just fighting for the Filipinos, she was fighting for her right to be herself. 

This is a reminder that stereotypes are simply just stereotypes. A woman could be soft and filled with different bows in her hair and dress but she could still have the strength and power to pull the trigger without flinching. 

Kumander Liwayway is an example and proof that with women who involve themselves with these things, beauty can also be the most dangerous woman one could ever bump into. 

This Independence Day, let us also acknowledge and celebrate the heroes who did not just fight for the Philippines and its people but also fought for our freedom to be ourselves without any stereotypes and misjudgments like Remedios Gomez-Paraiso. 

With reports from Ashley Kristieanne Ignacio