Melecio Marimon is remembered as a quiet person, son of a fisherman who moved from Bohol to settle in Sigaboy, Davao Oriental (now Governor Generoso). His mother ran a small sari-sari store.
Sigaboy was a coastal town, at the time barely accessible during the rainy season. Residents were poor, mostly fisherfolk or tenants in coconut farms. What gave life to the town and neighboring towns were the activities of the Catholic Prelature of Tagum and the Maryknoll Fathers who ran schools and campaigns, such as “land to the tiller” campaigns among the Sigaboy folk.
They also organized for the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF), of which Melecio’s father Andres was a member – tilling the land as a tenant. Melecio himself joined Khi Rho, the FFF’s youth arm, when he turned 18.
At that time, Melecio Marimon, nicknamed Tatin, was a college student at Saint Mary’s College in Mati. He started to show interest in social issues. He discussed with farmers and joined a protest action of farmers in Napnapan, a barangay in Pantukan, Davao de Oro. For days the protesters were able to stop trucks of logging companies from entering their community by blocking the road with their prone bodies.
These experiences led Tatin and some Khi-Rho members in the Davao Region to join a group called “Batang Lintik ni Bonifacio” (BLB) which trained the members to be more bold and aggressive in their cry for reforms.
During the Holy Week of 1972, Tatin Marimon joined other members of Khi Rho and other groups in staging a ‘Calvary March.’ Young people from Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental and Davao del Sur participated in the march, some carrying a symbolic crosses. By the time everyone had gathered at Davao City’s Rizal Park, there was an estimated 8,000 participants in the symbolic protest against poverty and other issues.
Tatin Marimon and other members of Khi Rho later supported a protest action of coconut farm workers who had not been paid for six months. For their part in the action, Tatin and some Khi Rho members were arrested and detained. Others were soon released on bail, but Tatin was held in prison for a few more months.
When Marcos installed martial law in September, Tatin left town to evade certain arrest. He and other Khi Rho friends went to live and work with farmers in the outlying towns of Sigaboy, San Isidro, Mati and Lupon, where they continued to organize the farmers, raising their consciousness on their rights as well as on the evils of authoritarian rule. Tatin was again arrested sometime in 1975 in Barangay Bato-Bato in San Isidro, Davao Oriental. He had a shoulder wound that was untreated and festering. Cell inmates had to make demands before police had Tatin’s wound treated.
Tatin’s activities put his family as well under surveillance by the authority; in looking for him. Soldiers raided their house in the early years of martial law. To spare his family from military harassment, it was the Maryknoll priests who visited and took care of Tatin’s needs while he was in prison. When he was released in 1977, the priests took him in and the following year sent him to study for the priesthood in the Saint Francis Xavier Seminary in Davao City.
In the seminary, Tatin Marimon introduced politics to his fellow seminarians. He invited them to join teach-ins going on in other colleges. He talked about the clandestine organization, Christians for National Liberation, and its principles. He also talked on the need to defeat the dictatorship. He convinced some seminarians to help support the anti-Marcos movement.
Later in 1980 he left the seminary and enrolled at the Holy Cross of Davao College in Davao City. He continued to be involved with the student movement. He helped coordinate a city-wide campaign to paint anti-dictatorship slogans all over Davao City (‘operation dikit’) on May 27, 1981.
Authorities ordered a crackdown on the instigators of the successful clandestine action. Tatin realized he could no longer continue to stay in the city. By then he had a wife, Nenita, also a student activist, and a son. But he felt the only option for him and his family was to return to the guerrilla zone.
Tatin Marimon was killed with four others during a military raid in Libay-libay, Maco, Davao de Oro, the day after he turned 32. Soldiers of the First Scout Rangers of the 41st Infantry Battalion ordered the local people in Libay-Libay to bury their bodies.
A few years later, church people transferred the bodies to the public cemetery in Maco.
Tatin, or Melecio, is remembered by his family and comrades as a quiet and steadfast organizer dedicated to the improvement of farmers’ conditions and their liberation from oppression and poverty.
