Nilo Tayag

Nilo Tayag is a Filipino bishop of the Philippine Independent Church.[2] He co-founded, along with Jose Maria Sison and others, the Maoist youth group Kabataang Makabayan ("Patriotic Youth") in 1964, which became the nucleus of the established Communist Party of the Philippines in 1968, and served as its Central Committee member.[3] He was the group's national chairman until he was arrested on June 11, 1970 in Barrio Concepcion, San Pablo, Laguna.[1] Detained along with Benito Tiamzon, Jesus Lava and other left-wing personalities at the Youth Rehabilitation Center in Fort Bonifacio, and later declaring support for the incumbent president Ferdinand Marcos, he was released in 1981 or 1982 after pleading guilty to the charge of subversion.[4]

After being released from prison, Tayag undertook theology studies with the Philippine Independent Church (PIC). In 1987, he ran for the Senate under the UPP-KBL ticket but lost.[5] After losing the election, in January 1988, Tayag and other Marcos loyalists declared their exit from the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan party to form a new party called the Loyalist Party of the Philippines (LPP), of which Tayag was co-vice president with Pacifico de Leon.[6] In 1989, the PIC ordained him a priest, and by 1993 consecrated him as a bishop.[2] He was a prominent supporter of Rodrigo Duterte during the latter's campaign for the Presidency[7] and is a member of the "Democratic Front for Filipinism", a group supporting Duterte's "revolution against illegal drugs, the oligarchs and the exploiters of the Filipino masses."[8]