José Baltazar Lava, also known as Peping or Harry,[1] was the general secretary of the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas-1930 (PKP), from 1948 until his arrest in 1950.
Lava was born in 1912 to a moderately affluent landowning family of six brothers and three sisters in Bulacan.
[3]: 4 Lava was previously a politburo member and the chief of the party's finance committee.
In early 1950, the PKP established the People's Liberation Army (Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan), which was made up of about 10,000 soldiers.
The entire secretariat of the Central Committee of the PKP, including Lava, was arrested on October 18, 1950, following the earlier capture of the politburo in Manila.