Kapag nakalatag ang lambong ng dilim
Saan mang lupalop ang iyong marating
Sa dakong hilaga’y mangyaring hanapin
Isang munting talang nagluluningning.
Maningning na talang parola’t gabay
Sa laot, sa lupa, ng manlalakbay
Tigib mang masalimuot ang tahaking daan
Hindi naliligaw ang sumusubaybay.
Saan mang sulok din na aking marating
Di ko iwawalay ang hilagang bituin
Habang nananalig na ika’y gayundin
Sa talang itong nag-ugnay sa atin.
Hanggang ang tala’y may kutitap pang angkin
Na sinusubaybayan ng ating paningin
Ano man ang layo ng agwat sa atin
Malayo ka ma’y malapit pa rin
Habang naghahari ang gabing madilim
Ay may liwanag ang di-mabilang na bituin
Ang angaw na tala’y kung bayang alipin
Ang talang hilaga’y ang mapagpalayang kilusan natin!
Botanist and plant taxonomist Leonard Co, forester Sofronio Cortez and farmer Julius Borromeo, were working on a biodiversity project that included the geothermal plant operations of the Lopez-owned Energy Development Corporation when they were killed in an incident involving members of the 19th Infantry Battalion of the Armed Forces of the Philippines on November 15, 2010 in Kananga, Leyte. The military men claimed Co and his companions died in a cross fire between them and the New People’s Army, a claim challenged by the Philippine National Police and Commission on Human Rights investigations and the independent fact-finding mission of Agham (Science and Technology for the People). Read the tribute written for him.