Luis Mangalus Taruc (Tagalog pronunciation: [luˈis tɐˈɾuk]; June 21, 1913 – May 4, 2005) was a Filipino political figure and rebel during the agrarian unrest of the 1930s until the end of the Cold War.

Influenced by his socialist idol Pedro Abad Santos of San Fernando, and inspired by earlier Katipunan revolutionaries such as Felipe Salvador, Taruc joined the Aguman ding Maldang Tala-pagobra (AMT, Kapampangan for 'Union of Peasant Workers') and in 1938, the Partido Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (Socialist Party of the Philippines).

The latter merged with the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas as part of the Common Front strategy, and Taruc assumed the role of Commander-in-Chief of the military wing created to fight the Japanese.

[5]: 11  He attended to the University of Manila for two years (June 1932–December 1934),[7] studying medicine and law, but no longer able to afford the expenses,[5]: 11–12  returned to Batasan without getting a degree to set up a tailor shop with his brother.

[5]: 14–15 Before the end of 1935, he joined Santos as a full-time organizer of the Socialist Party of the Philippines, which numbered a few hundred members and several thousand sympathizers.

[5]: 22 [9]: 21 He led a large people's army against the Japanese invaders, and their "puppet constabulary", as Supremo Luis Taruc,[5]: 22  or "Lu-Lu" ("the racing one"), then "Alipato" ("the flying spark that spreads a fire").

[5]: 22 Taruc was elected to the Philippine House of Representatives in 1946 as a member of the Democratic Alliance[5]: 25  (the party led by Sergio Osmena).

He and five other elected Democratic Alliance candidates opposed the constitutional amendment that would give American businessmen parity rights with Filipinos in exchange for US rehabilitation funding.

"[5]: 43  Luis states, "The peasants' hatred was founded on centuries of exploitation and oppression, feudal landlordism, and bad government.

[5]: 86–87  By then, the Huks had 15,000 armed men, and the country was embroiled in a "miniature civil war", with ambushes on the major highways common.

After the 1951 Central Committee meeting, a policy of "preservation and conservation of strength...for a long and bitter struggle" was adopted, and Luis departed with a group of ninety men and seven women, for the Sierra Madre Mountains.

[5]: 121, 132  On February 10, 1954, Manuel Manahan and Benigno Aquino Jr., appointed as President Ramon Magsaysay's representatives, met with Luis Taruc.

[5]: 139, 141 Taruc's trial started in August 1954, where he pleaded guilty to rebellion, "in the spirit of my agreement with the president", and sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment, plus a "huge fine".

In his later years Taruc claimed to have never been a real communist, but rather always advocated Christian democratic socialism;[5]: 6  he supported land reform strengthening the rights of local, small farmers over corporations and hereditary feudal elite.

[13] "Born of the People" was Nelson Mandela's reference on peasant resistance and guerrilla warfare when he was the commander in chief of the uMkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation).

"[5]: 21  Additionally, Luis wrote, "For ruthlessness and cruelty are alien to Christian thought, and when men in the Free World use such methods, they do so in defiance of their own morality and ideals.

[15] On May 4, 2005, Luis Taruc died of a heart attack in St. Luke's Medical Center in Quezon City at the age of 91, a month before his 92nd birthday.