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CPP on AFP’s claim of strategic victory over the NPA: ‘Dream on’

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The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) dismissed claims by Manila government security officials the New People’s Army (NPA) has already been strategically defeated, describing the declarations are nothing more than dreamland statements.

In a reaction to an online press briefing by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) last Wednesday, the CPP branded as ludicrous government claims that all but 14 “weakened guerilla fronts” of the NPA have been dismantled.

“This is pure wishful thinking on the part of the US-Marcos regime. It is a desperate attempt to fool the people and dampen their spirit of resistance,” the CPP said in a statement.

‘Zero active guerilla fronts’

In the briefing, NTF-ELCAC executive director Ernesto Torres Jr. said there are “zero active guerrilla fronts” and only 14 weakened units of the NPA remain. NTF-ELCAC said six guerilla fronts had recently been dismantled.

Torres did not identify the locations of the so-called remaining fronts but said it is Manila government’s priority to dismantle them to help in local peace talks engagements.

National Security Council (NSC) assistant director general Jonathan Malaya in the same briefing alleged the NPA is at its weakest in its 55-year history with less than 1,500 fighters remaining nationwide.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in a New Year statement also boasted there are no longer active NPA fronts, reporting killing 67 leaders and 1,399 members as well as seizing 1,751 firearms throughout 2023.

The CPP however said the AFP, NSC and the NTF-ELCAC presented no proof in their self-congratulatory claims, saying in turn that majority of the guerilla fronts across 14 regional NPA commands are “far from dismantled.”

CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena said the NPA’s current strength remains deep and the wide mass support it enjoys is far from what the AFP wishes to imagine.

‘Why the increased AFP budget then?’

Valbuena admitted the NPA suffered grave losses from 2019 to 2022 due to internal weaknesses and errors as well as sustained military operations by close to 100,000 AFP troops since 2017.

“Squandering hundreds of billions of pesos, the reactionary armed forces have unleashed unimaginable state terrorist violence in the countryside,” Valbuena said.

But claims of strategic victory over the NPA are belied by the Marcos government’s increased military budget by almost 40% this year, Valbuena said, citing AFP’s ₱282.7 billion budget from last year’s ₱203.4 billion.

Valbuena said that a large part of the military’s funds go to the purchase and maintenance of US-supplied jet fighters and drones used in aerial bombing, artillery shelling and full-scale military operations in the countryside.

The CPP officer also said that a vast majority of AFP battalions remain deployed against the NPA despite announcements of wanting to shift to external defense against Chinese encroachment into Philippine territories.

Valbuena further said AFP’s claims of victories in the battlefield come at the expense of farmers and indigenous peoples’ communities who suffer de facto martial rule in the guise of “community support operations.”

“The AFP hinder the free movement of people, imposing curfew and prohibiting them from working in their fields, destroying their organizations, and other forms of suppression, in order to pave the way for the aggressive entry of mining operations, expansion of plantations, ecotourism and infrastructure projects,” he said.

“Fascist troops continue to carry out a campaign of state terrorism against the peasant masses, carrying out killings of civilians and covering up their crimes by claiming their victims to be NPA fighters,” Valbuena added.

Women NPA fighters at CPP’s 55th founding anniversary celebrations last December 26. (CPP photo)

‘Masses want their Red fighters back’

The CPP said in areas temporarily abandoned by NPA units due to intense military operations, the people wait for the return of the Red guerillas.

The Party said affected NPA units are determined to recover strength, rebuild their mass bases, and continue to wage armed revolution.

It added that the NPA has in fact started regaining its bearings since last year and have carried out maneuvers to frustrate AFP’s encirclement and focused military operations.

With the CPP’s third rectification movement launched on its 55th founding anniversary last December 26, it said the NPA shall soon regain lost territories and expand to new areas.

The CPP’s Central Committee also laid down several tasks the NPA should accomplish to recover strength, including the building of company-sized units for each guerrilla front and to launch basic or annihilative tactical military offensives that have a high percentage of succeeding.

Since December, CPP newsletter Ang Bayan has published reports of NPA operations that resulted in the killing of three Philippine Army troopers in Panay Island last December 9 and 10 and a paramilitary spy in Negros Island last December 27.

“The Red commanders and fighters of the NPA, and cadres of the Party are all determined to carry forward the people’s war as long as it takes until complete victory is attained,” the CPP said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

CPP launches ‘3rd Rectification Movement’ on 55th founding anniversary

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The 55-year old Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) called on its members to launch a rectification movement to recover from admitted setbacks suffered in recent years.

In its traditional founding anniversary statement, the CPP said it committed “critical errors and tendencies, weaknesses and shortcomings in the ideological, political and organizational fields.”

These errors impeded the revolutionary party’s growth that also affected the further advance of the revolution it leads, it said.

“To overcome and repudiate these errors, the Central Committee calls on the entire Party to wage a rectification movement on the basis of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and the Party’s basic principles as enunciated by Ka Joma (CPP founding chairperson Jose Maria Sison, who died December 16, 2022).

The underground organization (founded in December 26, 1968) said its third rectification movement is aimed at further strengthening itself primarily through the study and application of revolutionary theoretical theory and practice.

“There is widespread complacency in the study and application of revolutionary theory to serve as guide to practice, and timidity as well in drawing theory from practice,” it said.

These errors resulted in battlefield losses suffered by the New People’s Army (NPA), a slowdown in the recruitment of new members and in both rural and rural areas, and retardation of the revolutionary mass movement nationwide, it said.

READ THE FULL STATEMENT HERE: Rectify errors and strengthen the Party! Unite and lead the broad masses of the Filipino people in fighting the US-Marcos regime! Advance the people’s democratic revolution!

The CPP said problems have already been identified as early as 2016 when it held its 2nd National Congress but have persisted.

Study-led rectification

The CPP said its third rectification movement is made up of eight components:

  1. A study campaign on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and the writings of communist leaders such as Sison;
  2. A full implementation of the three-level (basic, intermediate, and advanced) Party course;
  3. A study campaign on its constitution and program;
  4. A review of its first and second “Great Rectification Movements”;
  5. A summing up campaign to identify recent errors;
  6. A social investigation and class analysis campaign on all sectors;
  7. A criticism and self-criticism campaign; and
  8. Evaluation of the performances of its cadres.

The CPP’s first great rectification movement was launched when it was reestablished in 1968 after the old Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas died, while its second was launched in the early 1990s against renegade elements in various levels of its leadership.

Sources said the CPP’s earlier rectification movements were labeled “great” as it spelled the very life and death of the Party.

The underground organization’s new campaign is simply called “rectification movement.”

Strengthening

In its statement, the CPP also called on its members to continue in leading antifascist, anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggles of the Filipino people against United States of America imperialism and the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. regime.

It also ordered its members to strengthen the NPA, rebuild the guerrilla army’s mass bases and help it recover from losses.

The Party ordered the strengthening of “revolutionary mass movements” in the countryside, cities and abroad as well.

On the National Democratic Front of the Philippines’ announced dialogues with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines for the possible resumption of formal peace negotiations, the CPP cautioned its members against Malacanan’s “framework of capitulation.”

“Push for the recognition of all previous agreements including the The Hague Joint Declaration, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law,” it added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

‘Tenacious and determined’ NPA frustrates Duterte’s all-out war

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CPP congratulates Red Fighters on 53rd anniversary

The Rodrigo Duterte government has failed to crush the New People’s Army (NPA) despite vowing to do so before its term ends, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said.

In its message on the NPA’s 53rd anniversary today, the CPP said the revolutionary army has successfully frustrated Duterte and his military generals in their repeated declaration of crushing the people’s armed resistance.

While admitting losses due to the government’s new arsenal of weapons and strategies, the CPP said the NPA has preserved itself and has achieved victories in most guerilla fronts.

“The Red fighters and commanders of the NPA, and the Party cadres leading the NPA, have displayed great tenacity and determination to bear heavy sacrifices, surmount all adversity and limitations, and exert all efforts to defend the people against fascism and state terrorism,” the CPP said.

The underground party also said NPA fighters are willing to shun all desires for comfort and convenience as they shoulder the difficult tasks in waging the people’s war.

“They draw joy, strength and inspiration from the peasant masses who the NPA serves selflessly, and who, in turn, provides for the needs of the NPA,” it added.

The NPA is operating and has preserved its strength in all of the country’s 13 regions, the CPP said.

Bicol NPA twits Duterte

The NPA in Bicol said the Duterte government has failed to crush their armed revolution in the region.

Red fighters of the NPA’s Romulo Jallores Command prepare for a cultural presentation as part of their celebration of the 50th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines. (Raymund B. Villanueva/Kodao)

“The advancement of the people’s war in Bikol, despite its being one of the focus of US(United States)-Duterte regime’s anti-people war, is one of the most undeniable proofs of Duterte’s failure to curb the people’s democratic revolution. The insistent mass surrender campaigns, militarization and civilian killings only pushed the Bikolanos towards revolutionary struggle,” Raymundo Buenfuerza, spokesperson of the NPA’s Romulo Jallores Command said in a statement.

“Where are Duterte’s boasts and strong promises that he can pulverize the revolutionary movement during his term? With barely over two months remaining and despite ceaseless empty declarations of surrenderees after surrenderees, encounters and whatnots, the truth that they failed came straight from none other than the tyrant himself,” Buenfuerza added.

The Bicol NPA further said is reduced to pleading and coercing NPA members into pacification as the President’s “last bid to show some success for his bragging and unrealistic declarations six years ago.”

Buenfuerza said the NPA’s continuing advance in Bicol is one of the most undeniable proofs of Duterte’s failure to curb the “people’s democratic revolution.”

More gov’t troops

The CPP revealed the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has created new combat units to try to crush the NPA, to no avail.

The group claimed that almost 60% of the AFP’s combat troops are concentrated in five of the 13 regions, namely, Southern Tagalog, Eastern Visayas, Southern Mindanao, Bicol and North Central Mindanao.

“There is a marked increase in the deployment of troops in Far South Mindanao, Negros, Southern Mindanao, Eastern Visayas, Cagayan Valley and Southern Tagalog. The AFP aims to conduct large-scale and focused military operations, coordinate its various branches and make full use of the whole range of its arsenal against the guerrilla forces of the NPA,” the CPP said.

Despite repeatedly declaring that the NPA has been weakened and is set to be crushed before the end of Duterte’s term on June 30, the AFP and PNP continues to increase its counter-guerrilla combat forces, the CPP said.

It added that there are presently 166 combat battalions of Army, Air Force, Marines, Scout Rangers, Special Action Forces and other military and police units deployed against the NPA, 21 more than the previous year.

The NPA’s First Pulang Bagani Battalion in formation in Davao City in 2017. (R. Villanueva/Kodao)

“With this number, the AFP can deploy 5 to 6 battalions against their priority or focused guerrilla sub-regional or front areas of the NPA, and deploy two to three in non-priority areas. The AFP and PNP have established joint commands and operations,” the CPP said.

“The push to achieve overwhelming military superiority, however, has the opposite effect of deepening its political inferiority,” it said.

Increased budget for the military

The CPP said the Duterte government has increasingly overspent on the military and police yet failing in its objective in crushing one of the world’s oldest Communist guerilla war.

It said Duterte’s budget for the military further increased to ₱221 billion this year from ₱217 billion last year, in addition to creating and unleashing another brutal anti-insurgency program led by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

The NTF-ELCAC had an increased of ₱17.5 billion in 2021 from ₱4.2 billion in the previous year, ₱10 billion of which was categorized as unallocated.

The AFP has also received a total of $1.14 billion worth of military assistance in the form of Foreign Military Financing, military training programs and others mainly from the United States of America and other foreign countries in the past six years.

The CPP said the Duterte government purchased attack and combat utility helicopters, jet fighters and attack aircraft, cannons and artillery systems, 500-lb and 250-lb bombs, rockets and missiles, drone systems, tanks, armored personnel carrier, electronic surveillance and communication equipment, rifles, bullets and many other new equipment to fight the NPA.

It has deployed GPS tracking systems, button-sized cameras to track guerrilla movement in forested areas, equipment for mobile phone surveillance in a bid to utilize new technology in fighting the guerilla NPA.

The government has also enacted a new anti-terrorism law and let the NTF-ELCAC control civilian government agencies in a “civil-military junta.”

It has also designated the CPP, the NPA as well as the National Democratic Front of the Philippines as so-called terrorist organizations.

Rampant human rights abuses

The CPP said that all the AFP and the PNP succeeded to do however are rampant human rights abuses, both in the cities and rural areas.

“In the cities, military and police agents subject unionists, community organizers, youth and women activists, as well as human rights advocates, progressive religious leaders, teachers and health workers to surveillance, harassments, arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings,” it said.

“The situation is even worse in the countryside, although there is gross under-reporting of incidents of military abuses and violations of human rights,” it added.

The CPP said the government enemy has erased all distinction between combatants and civilians in its “arbitrary accusation” of civilians as being communists or communist-supporters using the new anti-terror law to justify gross violations of people’s rights and freedoms.

“It lays siege on communities mobilizing large numbers of troops in night-time or early-morning raids on peasant homes such as in the Oplan Sauron in Negros, the massacre of Tumandok minorities in Capiz and the Bloody Sunday mass killing of activists in Southern Tagalog,” it said.

‘Serious setbacks’

The CPP admitted that the NPA suffered “serious setbacks,” including the loss of NPA national commander Menandro Villanueva and NPA national spokesperson Jorge Madlos in the past year.

It also admitted that some NPA units committed errors, showed internal weaknesses and committed shortcomings that “incapacitated [them] from effectively using guerrilla tactics of concentration, dispersal and shifting.”

“A few of these units have been saddled with various problems including over-concentration and self-constriction, weakness in striking the correct balance in military and political work, leading to their inability to strengthen and expand the mass base and area of operation,” the CPP said.

“Some units have been afflicted with conservatism and passivity or a mountain-stronghold mentality. In some guerrilla fronts, the enemy was able to concentrate its forces on a limited area and apply brutal tactics of suppression against the masses to build blockhouses, compel NPA units to retreat to rough terrain where supply and flow of information is difficult, and force them into a purely military situation,” it revealed.

The CPP urged all NPA units to “self-critically assess their situation, identify and overcome their weaknesses and shortcomings and surmount their limitations, in order to steadily advance from one level to another.”

The NPA in Negros Island. (File photo/Nonoy Espina+)

7 tasks

While showing great resilience and frustrating six years of Duterte’s offensives, the CPP said the NPA must quickly adapt to the tactics and strategy of its and carry forward the “people’s war.”

“We must creatively enhance our tactics in guerrilla warfare in order to wage extensive and intensive guerrilla warfare on an ever widening and deepening mass base. As always, the key is to arouse the broad masses of the Filipino people in order for them to rise up in great numbers against the fascist tyranny,” it said.

It added that the NPA has the following tasks in the coming years:

  1. Strengthen the Party’s leadership of the NPA.
  2. Vigorously wage armed struggle and resist the enemy’s brutal war of suppression.
  3. Strengthen the New People’s Army.
  4. Broaden and deepen the NPA mass base in the guerrilla fronts.
  5. Generate widespread support from the cities for the revolutionary armed struggle in the countryside.
  6. We must systematically proselytize among the enemy’s ranks.
  7. Aggressively generate international support for the New People’s Army and the Philippine revolution.

(Report by Raymund B. Villanueva)