The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said it will not declare a unilateral ceasefire on the 57th founding anniversary of the New People’s Army on Sunday, March 29.
CPP chief public information officer Marco Valbuena told Kodao, “There will be no declaration of ceasefire on March 29.”
“All units of the NPA can continue to carry out planned guerrilla actions if any,” he added.
Despite guarantees by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and even by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. himself that Manila would have eliminated the last of the NPA units by last year’s end, the guerilla revolutionary army is set to celebrate its founding anniversary tomorrow.
Established in 1969 in Capas, Tarlac, the NPA had been waging a “protracted people’s war” for the CPP-led national democratic revolution to overthrow the “semi-colonial, semi-feudal Philippine society.”
It is the CPP’s most effective arm in building alternative governments leading to its Mao Tse Tung-inspired strategy of “encirclement of the cities from the countryside” prior to seizing national political power.
CPP founding chairperson Jose Ma. Sison, under the nom de guerre amado Guerrero, was credited for founding the army, aided by former Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon (Hukbalahap) commander Bernabe Buscayno, then known as “Kumander Dante.”
Valbuena said that in the face of the AFP’s all out offensives against guerilla units across the country, the CPP advised the NPA to “closely monitor all enemy movements, and take advantage of opportunities to strike at its tired and isolated units.”
The CPP declared a unilateral ceasefire in the observance of Christmas and New Year last December and January to allow its members and supporters to celebrate the multiple holidays but were met with intense military operations, most notably in Abra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro.
The AFP attack reportedly resulted in the death of a Mangyan resident. A Filipino-American was taken into custody by the military who was later repatriated to the US. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
