🇵🇭 Amid claims of defeat, communist militants rally their ranks

Above: CPP propaganda released to mark the anniversary of the NPA

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) marked the 55th anniversary of its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), by urging it to step up attacks on Philippine security forces and the government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, which the CPP alleged is in cahoots with the US and was at risk of dragging the Philippines into a future conflict with China.

Various NPA commands throughout the Philippines responded to the call, issuing their own statements that warned of future attacks.

The CPP-NPA propaganda followed a statement by Philippine National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano on 26 March, claiming that the NPA had been “strategically defeated” and that there were no more active NPA fronts in the country. 

The claim appears to have riled the CPP’s main propaganda outlets, which issued flurries of content in a bid to counter narratives of impending defeat.

‘Tactical offensives’

In a statement published on the CPP website on 29 March, the CPP said the NPA must “carry out all possible kinds of tactical offensives, employing all kinds of weapons in the hands of the guerrilla forces and the people, from rocks, machetes, booby traps, rifles and land mines, and all sort of weapons that the people can craft”. 

The CPP also urged the NPA to target reconnaissance units and isolated outposts of the Philippine military, and attempt to seize any weapons in the process. The statement called on the NPA to launch “basic tactical offensives [to] annihilate” the Philippine military “piece by piece”.

The focus on “tactical offensives” appears to be a reference to a renewed call to wage asymmetrical warfare against the Philippine military, seizing weapons and then using those weapons to mount bigger offensives.

On 31 March, the CPP released another statement that said there was an “even greater need” for the NPA to wage new offensives on the Philippine military, to prevent the Philippines from being drawn into a war with China by the US. 

The statement said: “The US…wants to see an end to the NPA’s armed struggle so it can fully utilise the AFP [the Armed Forces of the Philippines] as a pawn in its plans of aggression and hegemonic expansion”.

‘Raise the level of civil war’

Various NPA units issued responses to the CPP’s statements.

The Apolinario Gatmaitan Command, based on Negros Island in the Visayas region of the Philippines, welcomed the CPP’s call for a re-engerised NPA presence, stating: “This is a valuable step so that we can raise the level of our civil war to a higher level.” The militants added: “By using the basic principles and tactics of guerrilla warfare, we can defeat the enemy and keep them blind and deaf.”

A statement by the Melito Glor Command, based on the northern island of Luzon, echoed the CPP’s line calling for “tactical offensives”, stating: “We have proven to be able to nullify superior enemy forces with all their modern weapons if we are in close contact with the masses [and] conducting successful tactical offensives”.

The Bienvenido Vallever Command, based on the island of Palawan, focused on the CPP’s warning of the Philippines being dragged into a potential US-China war. It said that the people of Palawan felt “great fear and apprehension” at the prospect of the US using the Philippines as a “launchpad” for a conflict with China. As such, the command said Palawan was “fertile” for NPA recruitment activities.

The Jose Rapsing Command, based on the island province of Masbate, said it would launch “tactical offensives” against the military and police, and called for more local recruits to join its ranks. The command targeted the recruitment of youths, challenging them to forget social media platforms like TikTok and instead turn their attention to “serving the people” through joining the NPA. The command also called on parents in Masbate to encourage their children to join local NPA branches on the island.