The New People’s Army (NPA) is frustrating Manila government’s large-scale focused and sustained military operations (FSMOs) and has registered successes in preserving its forces, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) announced.
On the 56th founding anniversary of the NPA on Saturday, the CPP Central Committee hailed the “steadfast revolutionary spirit” of the Red fighters it said can win greater victories in waging guerrilla warfare.
The CPP pointed out that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has again predicted “strategic victory” against the NPA at the end of 2024 but has been forced to admit the Communist guerrilla army is still very active in many parts of the country.
“For several years now, the enemy has played up the psywar (psychological war) line that it is on track to winning a strategic victory against the NPA. He has conjured exaggerated numbers of supposed ‘dismantled’ or ‘weakened’ guerrilla fronts” the CPP said in its message.
It added that top AFP officers have made the preposterous claim that the NPA has only one “weakened guerrilla front” left, not hiding the fact however that Manila continues to spend billions upon billions of pesos in aerial bombing, ground operations and psywar.
Even provincial and local officials have been goaded by the AFP to make “farcical declarations” that their provinces or towns are “insurgency-free,” easily belied by NPA tactical offensives, the CPP said.
“The AFP cannot dispute the reality that the NPA continues to enjoy the deep and wide support of the people because it continues to fight for their aspirations for justice and genuine freedom,” it added.
Founded on March 29, 1969 in Capas, Tarlac by the CPP, the NPA wages one of the longest Communist armed revolutions in the world.
Rectification movement taking effect
The revolutionary party said it started pointing out “errors, weaknesses and shortcomings” in the NPA’s conduct of their guerilla warfare as early as 2022 that has contributed to losses and constriction of mass bases in the past.
The CPP said it implemented adjustments and launched its “third rectification movement” in December 2023 to arrest the “stagnation” of the guerilla war.
The NPA said it reached more than 120 guerilla fronts in 2016 but has admitted to some losses as a result of AFP’s FSMOs since 2019.
But the CPP revealed that the NPA is currently in the process of redeploying and re-orienting its units on the basis of an ever widening and deepening mass base.
It added that the NPA is “slowly overcoming passivity and regaining initiative,” becoming more successful in preserving forces and frustrating AFP’s “relentless and heightened campaign of encirclement and suppression.”
“The enemy’s large-scale FSMOs are increasingly being rendered ineffective. So much so that even at the height of the enemy’s combat and combing operations last December and through January, units of the NPA were able to hold consolidation assemblies and host scores of visitors to conduct education and cultural activities,” the CPP revealed.
The NPA has mostly kept government forces deaf and blind and has rendered military campaigns and aerial bombing drives ineffective, it added.
“By waging active defense, units of the NPA have been increasingly able to inflict damage on the rampaging enemy forces,” it said.
“Meanwhile, to maintain the illusion of having ‘strategically defeated the NPA,’ the AFP is systematically concealing the rising number of casualties, killed and wounded, resulting from its failed attacks against the NPA,” the CPP said.
The CPP enjoined the NPA to launch more tactical offensives, particularly on AFP units that rural villages.
“Plan to seize the enemy’s weapons to arm new recruits. Mount hundreds of small unit tactical offensives to seize firearms,” it said.
“We are certain that the NPA can win greater victories in revitalizing and expanding the mass base and in waging guerrilla warfare against the US-Marcos fascist regime,” the CPP added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)