Manila: A beauty queen and one of Manila’s top fashion models in the 60s who joined the communist guerrillas leader during the martial law regime of President Ferdinand Marcos , died in her sleep due Thursday afternoon, sources said,

Maita Gomez, 64, who was supposed to represent the country in the Miss World pageant in 1967 died in her sleep.

According to her son, Antares Gomez Bartolome, she was supposed to wake up for lunch but was found lifeless in her room at past two in the afternoon.

Gomez was studying medicine at the University of the Philippines and was modeled for top designer Pitoy Moreno before she became a beauty queen. She failed to represent the country in the Miss World pageant after she went underground to join the New People’s Army, the military arm of the the Communist Party of the Philippines.

She was eventually arrested and imprisoned as a political detainee, but she managed to escape and rejoined her comrades. Gomez along with the leaders of the communist movement emerged from the underground in 1986 after President Corazon Aquino ordered the release of all political detainees and initiated a ceasefire and peace negotiations with the insurgents.

Gomez had two children with an early relationship with a member of the Perez-Rubio family and had two more children with singer-activist Heber Bartolome.

Bartolome said the death of Gomez brought back memories of the time they traversed rice fields in far-flung provinces to meet and organise poor people. He is expected to finish a song about his life with Gomez who was known for her rare alchemy as a beauty queen and a jungle-fighting leftist amazon.

In 1987, Gomez founded Kaiba, a women’s political party and ran for senator in the 1987 national elections under the leftist alliance, Partido ng Bayan (Nation’s Party). She lost in the race that was dominated 22-2 by Corazon Aquino’s political alliance.

Gomez once again tried but failed to win a seat at the House of Representatives in the 1995 elections.