Taruc went underground in late 1946, following failed negotiations with President Roxas, and the Huks soon numbered 10,000 armed fighters. Subsequent negotiations with President Elpidio Quirino in June and August 1948 also failed. By the presidential elections of 1949, the Huks had abandoned electoral politics in favor of armed insurgency. The Huks controlled most of central Luzon, the “rice basket” of the Philippines, including two provincial capitals, by 1950. Their motto, "a democratic peace, or martyrdom." Luis states, "The peasants' hatred was founded on centuries of exploitation and oppression, feudal landlordism, and bad government. But the rich...were driven by fear of losing their power and their social privilege...this was naked class war." In the Politburo meeting of Dec. 1949 to Jan. 1950, the Huks were reorganized as the HMB, "Hukbo Mapagpalaya ng Bayan", or "People's Army of Liberation", with Luis as a Politburo Supervisor (PBS) for the Party's Regional Committee, Reco 2, in the Zambales Mountains. By November 1950, Luis was removed from his post of command entirely. 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.