Overview of the National-Liberationist People's War in the Philippines

by Jose Maria Sison

Founding Chairperson

Communist Party of the Philippines

THE old merger party of the Communist and Socialist Parties founded the People’s Army against Japan (Hukbalahap) in 1942. This army became the Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan (People’s Liberation Army) in 1948 in order to resist the continued US domination of the Philippines under the US-RP Treaty of General Relations and the Parity Amendment of the Philippine Constitution and the return of the landlords to Central Luzon where the people’s army was based.

The backbone of the HMB was broken in the early 1950s. The semicolonial and semifeudal character of Philippine society seemed to be perpetual and invincible. The exploiting classes of big compradors and landlords blocked every attempt to uphold national sovereignty and carry out genuine and thoroughgoing land reform. In 1957 the reactionary government enacted the Anti-Subversion Law to punish by death officers of the Communist Party or any organization acting as its successor or front.


I. Revival of the National Democratic Revolution

I was among those who revived in the 1960s the mass movements of the workers, peasants and the youth under the leadership of the old merger party of the Socialist and Communist Parties. The ruling system was extremely oppressive and exploitative. We conceived of the national democratic revolution to oppose the system. We were not afraid of the Anti-Subversion Law.

We engaged in mass work to arouse, organize and mobilize the masses. We came under surveillance. We were blacklisted, subjected to propaganda attacks and removed from our jobs. Our mass actions were often disrupted and attacked.

Within the merger party of the Communist and Socialist Parties, the question arose whether to prepare for revolutionary armed struggle or not. The old merger party took the position of carrying out the legal mass movement indefinitely until such time that conditions were supposed to ripen and allow a general uprising.

Young Joma Sison

I was among those who took the position that people’s war must be started on the basis of the already existing mass base in the rural and urban areas. We left the old merger party to re-establish the Communist Party of the Philippines under the theoretical guidance of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism on December 26, 1968. Three months later on March 29, 1969, we founded the New People’s Army to wage people’s war..


II. Fascist Dictatorship of Marcos

In 1969, Marcos spoke of the Philippine society as a social volcano about to explode. In speaking thus, he presented himself as the strong leader to head off the eruption of the volcano. He had plans of using military force to perpetuate himself in power. He expanded the armed forces and was quick to use military force to suppress any manifestation of armed resistance in the countryside. He was responsible for the massacres in Barrios Culatingan, Sta. Lucia and Paraiso.

He launched Oplan Prophylaxis in an attempt to nip in the bud the New People’s Army in 1969. But he failed. The NPA grew from only 65 members with 9 automatic rifles and 26 handguns and single shot rifles to more than 200 automatic rifles from 1969 to early 1970 in Tarlac province. Marcos put together Task Force Lawin, consisting of 5000 troops and policemen, further augmented by so-called barrio self-defense units.

Having anticipated the concentration of enemy forces where we started to build the NPA, we sent expansion cadres to various regions in order to build armed propaganda teams from the mass organizations and deploy them in the villages. When Marcos boasted of having “decimated” the NPA in Central Luzon, the NPA had developed bigger mass bases in Isabela province in another region of the country.

At any rate, Marcos proceeded with his scheme to impose a fascist dictatorship on the people. On August 21, 1971, he suspended the writ of habeas corpus and suppressed all patriotic and progressive legal mass organizations. On September 21, 1972, he declared martial law and concentrated executive, legislative and judicial powers in his hands. In his martial law proclamation he claimed that the NPA had 10,000 rifles. In fact, it had only 300 rifles at the time.

But the 14 years of fascist dictatorship generated conditions favorable to people’s war. The New People’s Army was able to grow to the level of nearly 6000 high powered weapons by the time that Marcos fell in February 1986.


III.Low Intensity Doctrine Under Aquino Regime

Cory Aquino came to power as a consequence of the convergence of contradictory forces against the Marcos fascist regime. The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) representing the Communist Party of the Philippines, the NPA and other revolutionary forces agreed to hold ceasefire talks with the Aquino regime. A ceasefire agreement was forged on November 25, 1986 to prepare for peace negotiations on substantive issues.


But the peace negotiations came to an end when peasants were massacred while rallying in front of the presidential palace on January 23, 1987. Instead of holding responsible her security guards for the carnage, Aquino blamed the peasants and the entire revolutionary movement and proclaimed the unsheathing of the sword of the state.

With General Fidel Ramos as her defense secretary, she launched a series of national campaign plans Lambat Bitag I, II and III designed to destroy the armed revolutionary movement. The campaign plans were described as the application of the low intensity conflict doctrine. Human rights violations became rampant in both urban and rural areas. Base-denial operations and massacres were often undertaken in the countryside.

For a while, Lambat Bitag appeared to be successful as the armed movement was being weakened by an ultra-Left current which started in the early 1980s and then by a Rightist current which started to pick up strength in 1988. The ultra-Left current damaged the mass base and subsequently the Rightist current called for the liquidation of the Party and the armed revolutionary movement.


IV. Rectification Movement and Peace Negotiations

The ultra-Left current consisted of the premature formation of companies and of unnecessary levels of command and staff which took away Party and NPA personnel from mass work. Due to this erroneous current, the mass base of the revolutionary movement decreased by 15 percent in 1988 and by 60 percent in 1991. This reduced the ability of the NPA to wage tactical offensives although in the main the NPA retained its weapons.

The rectification movement was carried out to criticize and repudiate major errors. It reoriented, reorganized and redeployed the Party and NPA for mass work and for recovering and rebuilding the mass base. It also went against the attempt of the Rightists to liquidate the armed struggle and follow the reformist example of the Soviet leader Gorbachov.

At the same time, the NDFP engaged the Ramos regime in peace negotiations. The Hague Joint Declaration was agreed upon in 1992 to lay the framework for peace negotiations. And several more agreements were forged in order to advance the peace negotiations, which formally opened in 1995.

Some observers think that there was an ebb in the fighting between the NPA and the reactionary forces because of the peace negotiations. But the real cause was the decrease of the mass base and the weakening of the offensive capability of the NPA from 1988 to 1991 and the need for rectification and recovery from 1992 to 1998.


V. Revitalization and Resurgence of People’s War

The rectification movement was successful. The mass base expanded. The NPA could launch tactical offensives in different parts of the Philippines from 1996 onwards. It was able to capture a series of high-ranking military officers, including a general.

The people’s war was revitalized and resurgent in the last two years of the Ramos regime and in the three years of the Estrada regime. Estrada approved the military campaigns of suppression against the NPA and terminated the peace negotiations soon after he signed the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL). Eventually, he became preoccupied with the campaigns against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Mindanao.


VI. Oplan Bantay Laya

The Arroyo regime pretended for a while to continue the peace negotiations with the NDFP in 2001. But it decided to launch Oplan Bantay Laya I and II from 2001 to the end of her rule. International human rights organizations and UN human rights agencies called attention to the gross and systematic violation of human rights and made recommendations to the Arroyo regime to improve the human rights situation in the country. The regime turned a deaf ear to all of them.

Since its inception, Oplan Bantay Laya has perpetrated the abduction, torture and extrajudicial killing of more than 1000 social activists, including trade unionists, peasant leaders, human rights advocates, religious and journalists. At the same time, the peasant masses and indigenous peoples in the countryside have been subjected to arbitrary arrests and detention, bombings and forced evictions from their land and homes.

The violent attacks on urban based social activists was calculated to demoralize and weaken the legal mass movement and cut it off from the armed revolutionary movement in the countryside. But the people’s war intensified in response to the escalating campaigns of suppression.



VII. Prospects under the Aquino II Regime

The present Aquino regime follows the US Counterinsurgency Guide and is continuing Oplan Bantay Laya up to January 2011. However, there is already a 5-year military plan intended to defeat and destroy the NPA. By cutting the budgets for education, health and other social services, Aquino has increased the budget for the military and made way for a huge amount of debt service.

He has also increased the budget for an agency that is intended to be the civilian arm for facilitating the forced evacuation of peasants and the indigenous people who are victims of displacements due to militarization and wide-scale land grabbing by mining and logging companies.

There are indications that the Aquino regime is not interested in peace negotiations as a way of addressing the roots of the armed conflict and laying the basis for a just and lasting peace. To date, the Manila government has not reciprocated the NDFP’s demand for the resumption and acceleration of formal peace negotiations and has not responded to the NDFP’s proposal for a Concise Agreement to End Civil War and Achieve Immediate Just Peace. This proposal has been relayed to the GRP since August 27, 2005.

The NDFP is patiently waiting for the Aquino regime to dispatch its emissaries and to form the new negotiating panel of the GRP. ###


(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Joma Sison)


_______


 
Source:

Sison, Jose Maria. People's War. 22 Sept. 2010. http://www.josemariasison.org/?p=5015#more-5015


(Brief Presentation in Expert Workshop on Escalation Processes in Irregular Warfare, Raadszaal,Achter de St Pieter 200, University of Utrecht, 17 September 2010)



Photo credits:

http://www.librarylink.org.ph/revdetails.asp?rev=33

http://joseangelito-angeles.tripod.com/marcos.htm

http://baltimore.indymedia.org/newswire/display/17649




Reposts are licensed to the respective authors. Otherwise, posts by Jesusa Bernardo are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Philippines.

Sa Bayang Filipinas, 31 Agosto 1899 Emilio F. Aguinaldo

Sa Bayang Filipinas, 31 Agosto 1899

Emilio F. Aguinaldo

Sa Bayang Filipinas, 31 Agosto 1899. Tarlac, 31 August 1899.

Folder No. 678, Document No. 2, Roll No. 38 of the Philippine Revolutionary Records

BUOD: Sa kanyang mensahe sa sambayanang Pilipino, nananawagan si Pangulong Emilio Aguinaldo sa mga sibilyan na magsibalik na sa kani-kanilang tahanan at sinisiguro niya na walang tigil na isinusulong ng Hukbong Rebolusyunaryo ang pambansang pakikibaka laban sa mga mapanlinlang na Amerikano. Handang ialay ng mga rebolusyunaryong Pilipino ang kanilang buhay upang masiguro na ang mga susunod na henerasyon ng mga Pilipino ay mabubuhay sa isang malaya, mapayapa, at maunlad na Pilipinas. Ipinapahayag ni Aguinaldo na ang kasalukuyang digmaan ay nagdudulot ng pag-usbong ng nasyonalismong Pilipino at pagmamahal sa bayan at sa kapwa. Ayon sa kanya, ninanais ng mga imperyalistang Amerikano na masakop ang Pilipinas dahil na rin sa angking kagandahan at likas na yaman ng bansa. Nagbibigay-pugay siya sa mga kasapi ng Partido Demokrata, isang partido pulitikal sa Estados Unidos, para sa kanilang pagsuporta sa kalayaan ng Pilipinas at paglaban sa mga imperyalistang patakaran.

   Isinulat ni Julius Cesar I. Trajano; Inedit ni Raymund Arthur G. Abejo

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: In his message to the Filipino people, Pres. Emilio Aguinaldo directs all Filipino civilians to return to their homes to look after their personal affairs. He vows that the Revolutionary Army will continue to advance the national struggle for independence against the treacherous Americans and assures them that Filipino revolutionaries are willing to sacrifice their lives in order to ensure that the future generations of Filipinos will live in an independent, peaceful, and progressive Philippines. Aguinaldo says that the ongoing national war stimulates the rise of Filipino nationalism and civic consciousness. He praises the members of the Democratic Party, a pro-Philippine independence American political party, for their anti-imperialist stance and says that the American imperialists want to annex the Philippines because of the country's natural beauty and rich resources.

   Written by Julius Cesar I. Trajano; Edited by Raymund Arthur G. Abejo

Read original Spanish text

SA BAYANG FILIPINAS

Sa pagtupad ng kabaitang tinatalima ng ating gobierno at ng hokbo, ay panibago kong inihahayag sa manga ginigiliw na kababayan, bagama't mabigat sa loob namin, na ang sinomang tawong walang katungkulan sa gobierno, ay mangyayaring umowi at tumahimik sa kanikanilang bayan, nasasakop man ito nang kalaban, upan[…] mapangasiwaang mahusay ang mga pagkabuhay […] at bilang ipinagtatagubilin lamang sa lahat, na […]gay sanang parang walang inaayunang sino pa man neutrales baga;—at sakaling sila'y ganyakin ng kaaua’y, na balaan o hibuin, katulad na nga ng nangyayari, ay ipinababahala sa kani-kanilang malinaw na bait ang politicang maitutugon, yamang kilala ko rin naman ang pagirog at pagdamay sa Inang Filipinas ng bawa't isa sa inyo.

Hindi kailangan ng gobierno natin ang napakaraming tawo, kundi ang kaugma lamang ng bilang ng manga sandata niya at iba pang kailangang katungkulan: kaya, tumiwasay kayo at pawiin sa loob ang pagaalangan, at asahang hindi magpupuknat sa pakikilaban ang ating matiising hokbo, samantalang may extranjerong ibig umalipin sa pinakaiibig nating Filipinas, at kapus man sa sandata ay pagiinutan sila habang may buhay, na di lilingonin ang anomang kapinsalaan.

Tangi sa rito'y minamatamis sa puso nang ating hokbo ang makalilibong mamatay, maipagtangol lamang ang santong katowiran at ang… ¿aanhin pa nga naman ang manga katawan sa ibabaw nang lupa, kung mabubuhay rin lamang sa di katowiran at sa kaalipnan?

Sayang nga nang mahiguit na tatlong daang taong sinkad na iminulat nang manga mata natin sa naging Inang Españang tinatawag, kung ngayon ay pasupil pa tayo sa kaaway! Kaaway na ang adhikay ipagpilitan sa atin ang kanilang wika, upang tayo’y manauli na naman sa pagkasangol! Na sa kalitohan sa inuulak nilang maling adhika ay hindi nawari minsan man na

Ang isip na dilat, ay mahirap nang mabulag.

Di umano’y pamamahalaan tayong ang susundin ay manga leyes ding minana natin sa España!

Sa wari ko’y hindi ligaw na maniwala akong, ukol dito’y marunong pa tayo kung sa manga padpad lamang.

Bayang natutong bumawi nang kaniyang kalayaan, ay sapilitang matutumpak din naman nang paggamit nito!

Sa kabilang dako, ay mabuti rin naman ang ating digmaang itong laban sa partido imperialista (=Republican Party), pagka’t dahil sa kaniya’y lalong namumulat ang isip nang bayan, nalilinang at nadadalisay ang dilang kabaitan, natututong magmasakit sa kapowa, at habang lalong dumadami ang nabubuhos na dugo, ay lumulusog at nagtitibay naman sa puso ng lahat ang pag ibig sa Inang bayan.

Datapua’t kung tahimik na ay dapat naman nating pakatandaang huag magbibitaw ng salitang inaakalang hindi matutupad, gaya nga nang kanilang mga ginawing wica sa unang pagdating dito sa ating lupa, na di umano’y kaya naparito ang americano, ay upang maitangol at matulungan ng pagahon sa hirap ang mga bayang inaalipin ng iba, at ng magkaroon ng sariling Pamahalaan o Gobierno, at agad maitayo ang bandila nang lahi, pangakong buhay sa isip nila at sa isip ng madlang malalaking naciones, na nangakatunghay buhat sa dagat ng Maynila, na pinakasaksing hulog ng langit, ng nangagtagumpay na gawa ng ating malualhating panghihimagsik.

At ipinapapansin ko sa boong mundong matalino, na hindi nililimot ng bayan at ng hokbo ang tipanan at pagiibigang sa ngalan niya’y pinagkasunduan naming ng dumating ditong kinatawan ng Estados Unidos, na si almirante Dewey (=George Dewey), sa pamamagitan ng mga consules americanos sa Hong-Kong at Singapore.

At buhay na buhay sa puso ng bayan at ng hokbo itong bantog na Convenio, na pagkamalas sa mga americanong nabihag naming, ay ipinagsisigawang hinihingi na agadagad pawalan, pagka’t anila’y

Ayan kami at hindi kami nakikipaglaban sa Estados Unidos.

Ang manga tubo sa makapangyarihang naciong iyan ay manga kaibigan namin, aming manga kapatid.

Ang nabawing pagsasarili ay sa imperialista lamang namin ipinaglalaban at hinihinging kilanlin.

Isauli nga natin sa Estados Unidos ang kaniyang manga anak na ating nangadakip, pagka’t ang ating manga kapatid at manga kaibigan ay hindi natin mabibihag.

At sa gangayong kahingian ng lahat na lubhang akma sa aking puso, at sa aking kasalukuyang gobierno ay ipinasiya ko ang pagpapawala ng mga americanong bihag, na ipinagbilin sa G. Secretario ng Guerrang agad ipadala kay general Otis (=Elwell Otis), Comandante general ng mga kalaban.

Kaya nga, mga iniibig na kababayan, ulitulit na ipinamamanhik sa inyong, huag sanang tutulutang mabahirang dungis ang madilag na buhay ng ating Inang Filipinas, at huag tutularan iyang asal na manirang pilit ng katowiran na daanin sa dahas, lalo nanga iyang mga natititik sa tinatawag na leyes internacionales (=international law), at huwag lilimuting kailan man ay di kukulangin ng magtatangkakal ng katowiran; isaisip na laging maraming matang tumitingin, malao’t madali ay sapilitang maghahari ang matowid, gaya nanga ng nangyayari sa bayang tunay ng America, na may isa ngayong partidong (=Democratic Party) kasalukuyang sumusulot sa kanilang gobierno, upang kilanlin nito ang Pagsasarili ng Filipinas. Anopa’t mayroon pa nga tayong maaasahang sa atin ay magtatangol, na pipilit sa kanilang mga kababayang tupdin ang kapangakoan sa atin, kapangakoang malinaw at hayag, bagaman di pinagsulatan , dahilang dapat naman nating ihati sa kanila ng taos sa loob na pasasalamat, sa mangyari at dili man itong unang pagganap, yayamang marahil ay mangagbago nang pasiya balang araw ang ating mga kaaway, at para waring tayo’y tinitikman lamang nila, na gaya ng inaasahang ko, palibhasa’y nakita na naman natin ang kanilang tapang na di mangyaring itangi.

Sa ganitong sanhi, kaya nga naman kusang nagtatangol ang ating kawal, na hindi alintana anomang hirap at sampo ng kamatayan, makita lamang na mabuhay sa katiwasayan ang mga pinakaiirog naming kababayan, at ang mga familia nila, sa lubos na pagasang ito nga

ang malaking kayamanan, na ating maipamamana

diyan sa mga bagong sumisipot na sangol, na dugo ng puso at kapilas ng buhay.

Anong pagkagandaganda mo at pagkasarap-sarap, virgeng Inang Filipinas! Sa kaayaaya mong ayos, sino kaya ang di mahahalina? 

punong dahilan manding ipinagaadhikang kamtan ka at..., datapua’t mauubos naman muna kaming lahat, bago itulot na maagaw ka.

Manga kababayan, inaanyayahan ko nga kayo ngayon magdala nang titigisang dakot na uling at putik; at nang mapahiran at matakpan ang kariktan nang ating virgin Inang Filipinas, upang siya’y huag nang matanyag at pagagawananan pa, gaya na nga ng nangyayari ngayong kasalukuyan.

Maraming dugo at buhay tuloy ang napaparamay na namamatay, dahil lamang sa kapagnaghilian sa kaniyang kagandahan nang ilan katauong taga America; sarisaring paratang na nga tuloy ang ibinubuhat upang tamuhin lamang siya, at salamat na nga lamang at ang mga alagad nang Filipinas ay nangagkakaisang loob sa pagtatangol sa kaniya, na di alumanang makitil ang hininga at mawala ang mga kayamanan, palibhasa’y siya ngang katowiran at kapurihan nang lahat; at matanto ng madla, na ang ating boong hokbo ay pawing nagkusang hiningi sa ating gobierno na habang may kalaban ang bayang Filipinas ay huag na muna silang bigyan nang sueldo, at tuloy iniaambag nang mga mayroon ang kanikanilang kaunting kayamanang iniingatan.

Idaing, nga natin sa Panginoon Dios, na bigyan niyang kapangyarihang makapaibabaw sana sa Estados Unidos ang dakilang partido democrata (=Democratic Party), na siyang nagsasangalang ng independencia ng Filipinas; tuloy bigyan ng pangpalubay loob ang mga imperialista, upang huag na tayong daanin sa dahas ng sandata, at kahimanawari huag matuloy ang isang panaginip, na di umano’y sakasakaling sila’y matalo nang democrata, ay panghihigantihan naman ang Filipinas nang malaking indemnización na inaakalang hindi makakaya, at nang magkaroon sila nang katowirang masunod ang dating nasa… sa macatowid, ang digmang ito’y malinaw na isang malaking pangangalakal lamang, na kung pasusuriin ay tunay na kusang pagpatay.

Datapua’t maaasahan pa natin ang mga americanong may mga ganap na bait at tumutupad ng dati nilang lahing may manga puri, na sinasabi na sa itaas; at marami rito sa kanilang mga kasamahang may ganap na kabaitan, lalo na sa mga sundalo, na bagama’t nakikipaglaban sa atin, ay dahil lamang sa disciplina: sa katunayan nito’y marami nang presentados o desertores americanos dito sa atin, na di umano’y ayaw silang makipaglaban sa mga Filipinos, na siyang talagang may katowiran, tangi sa kilala nilang ang digmang ito’y kusang pagpatay at pagamis sa kapowa, palibhasa’y tanto rin nila naman ang kakapusan natin ng sandata dahilang lalong ipinaguulol nang canilang poot sa partido imperialista.

At sa katapusa’y muling inaluluhog sa manga kababayan, na huag na sanang ipagsabisabing ang Filipinas ay maganda at may kayamanang iningat, upanding huag naman tayong mahirapan bukas makalawa sa manga maingitin, at nang tayo’y mapanulos na sa ating katahimikan.

Lumawig ang Pagsasarili nang Filipinas!

Mabuhay ang Republica!

Mabuhay ang hokbong taga pagtangol!

Mabuhay at lumagi ang pagiisang loob!

Tarlak 31 nang Agosto nang 1899.

Emilio Aguinaldo

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