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.

To Pres. Erap Estrada: A Pleading NOT to Concede

Pres. Joseph "ERAP" Estrada, I beg you to please NOT concede to the Yellow Cheat.

You said this is the "final, final performance" of your life. Continue then for the worthy, principled cause of searching for the May 10, 2010 ELECTORAL TRUTH.

Hindi po kayo nag-isa at kasama ninyo kami. Nandiyan din po ang ma-prinsipyong sina Sen. Jamby Madrigal,  G. Nicanor Perlas, at G. JC de los Reyes. These three fine lady and gentlemen presidentiables, who have endured the malicious ridicule of the yellow media and civil (daw) society, have acknowledged their defeat in the elections but chose not to concede in the face of apparent massive fraud.

Nick, Jamby and JC, while tailenders in the Comelec tallies, are most worthy of the Filipinos' accolade because despite the fact that they have nothing to gain but possibly everything material to lose, they elect to boldly uphold the patriotic duty to ensure that the sanctity of the Filipinos' ballot is preserved. Bro. Eddie Villanueva and his running-mate, Mr. Perfecto Yasay, seem also trekking the difficult path of searching  for the truth in the recent democratic exercise to chose our leaders. These beprincipled modern-day heroes and heroine are your unwitting patriotic allies in uncovering the truth of the automated fraud in the recent elections, Pres. Estrada. 

As the second front-runner in the  Comelec count, you logically seem to have been the target of the apparent automated electoral fraud. Thus, you should not concede because to do so is tantamount to condoning electoral fraud, trampling upon the expressed rights of the people, and giving away the Republic to the hands of crooks, liars, and high-level criminals.

With all due respect, I humbly ask of you not to repeat your past mistake in EDSA 2 when you  sacrificed your position and the vote of the sovereign people to avoid confrontation with the seditious mob in January 2001. The result of that well-meaning mistake has been nine years of a reign of impunity by Gloria and her cabal of thieves, cheaters, and liars. An evil Illegitimate's reign that not only smashed the Filipinos' moral fiber but, as well, led to unparalleled hunger and killings, and death from extrajudicial executions, warlord-perpetrated massacres or negligence by sheer misappropriation of disaster funds.

By opting not to confront the EDSA 2 conspirators and mob, President Estrada, you ultimately did not save Filipino lives but lost many, and much more. If you opt to abandon the fight for the presidency now, you could be delivering motherland to a most undeserving, if not dangerous, administration.

The TRUTH, upon which are hinged the moral and democratic sanity of the Philippines, is worth fighting for, perhaps even dying for. Kayo po ang nasa posisyon upang maibalik ang dangal na nanggagaling sa pagkakakilanlan ng mundo sa kakayanan ng ating lahi na galangin ang tunay na boses ng mga mamamayan.

Please lead the nation in upholding our democratic ideals. Do not concede to a fraud. With the help of the true God that does not condone cheating, neither power grab, and does not discriminate between the "great unwashed" and the perfumed, washed masses we will succeed, Mr. President.

Beware and Overcome [YELLOW] Media Manipulation

by Nicanor Perlas


READERS beware! If you want to get the truth regarding the recent national elections, go beyond what you get from the mainstream media. Do your own research. Check the facts on the ground. Ask what your friends experienced. Connect the dots yourself. Come to your own conclusion. In this way, you will protect your mind from being manipulated by unseen powers that lurk behind the country’s media establishment.

Immediately after the May 10, 2010 elections, the Filipino public was brainwashed with stories about a stunningly successful election. “ ‘Birth pains’ of poll automation over”. “Fast count stuns nation”. “Stocks surge as markets cheer successful elections”. “ ‘Villar conceding proves Comelec credible’ “. “Take a bow, Filipino voters”. “US, EU praise RP for elections; peso, markets buoyed”. “Comelec proves critics wrong”. “Filipinos carry on love affair with PCOS machines”.

The “Good job” editorial of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) captures the euphoria over the rapid success of the elections. In its May 12, 2012 editorial, two days after the elections, PDI wrote the following:

“Contrary to the most dismal expectations, . . . the country’s first nationwide automated elections have turned out to be a success. . . . the May 10 vote marked a true rite of passage. Our electoral system has finally caught up with the 21st century. . . . . For now, and while taking into consideration the remaining uncertainties in the election, our civic duty is to commend the many people who helped turn the first computerized polls into a success.”

PDI then thanked the presidential candidates for conceding to apparent winner Benigno Aquino III. PDI had special words for Manny Villar. PDI called his “gracious” concession a “class act”.

Understandably, amidst this sudden euphoria, when I did not concede victory to Aquino due to evidence of massive fraud in the elections, the gatekeepers in media started framing my decision as “sour grapes” or “sour loser”. They also distorted the facts in my press release or media interviews. And, if I did come out in the media, they would often attach “losing” presidential candidate to my name, to implicitly emphasize that I was a “sour loser”. They did not want to bring out that I was questioning the outcome of the elections, not for myself, but because it was the product of a fraudulent process and thereby endangered our democracy. (See my press statement, “I am not conceding”) Oftentimes, they would simply censor my comments and give a one-sided account of subsequent events that followed.

However, no one can suppress the truth. No one can overcome the truth. And indeed the truth regarding massive fraud in the elections started to surface all over, despite media bias against incidents of fraud.

News surfaced about 60 PCOS machines stored illegally at the private house of one Smartmatic technician. Irregular transmission dates were found in one of these PCOS machines. Reports also came out about flash cards found in the garbage dump in Cagayan de Oro City, implying an attempt to remove evidence of fraud. Alert citizens and IT experts also discovered that all election returns (ERs) were transmitted without the required digital signatures, a clear violation of RA9369, the law that authorized the establishment of the automated election system. Canvassing of votes cannot take place because the ERs are not valid. Further research by various groups has also revealed that COMELEC has violated more than 50% of the provisions of RA9369. This meant that the recent national elections were fraudulent, thereby also making the election results illegal. Then recently, several whistle blowers surfaced claiming massive fraud in the recent 2010 elections.

With these developments, media headlines started to slowly change, albeit begrudgingly and reluctantly and even antagonistically. They started carrying stories of fraud. “Erap focuses on ‘hocus PCOS’, an ‘electronic Garci’ system”. “Watchdogs call for probe of ‘poll irregularities’”. “Three losing pres’l bets troop to SC”. And so on.

Until finally, on 18 May 2012, PDI writes an editorial: “Reviewing the polls”. PDI wrote:

“Now, some people are having second thoughts: the automated elections system may have its faults, after all. . . . . The most prominent of the critics is deposed President Joseph Estrada . . . Estrada is refusing to concede saying that he is gathering evidence showing discrepancies in the transmitted results and other alleged irregularities. Three other presidential candidates, Senator Maria Consuelo “Jamby” Madrigal, Nicanor Perlas, and JC de los Reyes, have not conceded either saying that, while they may not win the presidency, they want to know the whole truth about the results of the presidential elections. . . . .

“That the new automated election system is being subjected to a thorough examination and critique by various sectors of society is a healthy sign for our democracy. It shows that voters are not content with just voting and receiving fast results; they want to be assured that the entire process is fair, accurate and credible. Elections are the instrument by which the will of the people is expressed. If the electoral system can be subverted, then we will not know how the people really decided.”

The PDI editorial marked the passage of the country from misinformed and naïve euphoria of a “stunning” “successful” election, to the messy reality that massive fraud may have been perpetuated in the recent national elections.

No matter what happens to the fate of the whistleblowers who have recently surfaced and the increasing number of impossible results being uncovered, one thing is clear. Mainstream media is not neutral. They have their preferences and interests to protect. They wield massive cultural power to convince millions that their interests and preferences are the truth, are the reality.

Do not yield to their mind games, to their mind manipulation. Stand firm. Make your own independent decisions. The emergence of truth about the national elections will depend on our collective deprogramming from the frontal mental attacks of media. And this truth will determine the future of our country.


(Reposted with permission from Mr. Nicanor Perlas)

____________

Source: 

Perlas, Nicanor. Beware and Overcome Media Manipulation. 21 May 2010. http://www.nicanor-perlas.com/News/beware-and-overcome-media-manipulation.html

What differs Erap: Ex-President Joseph Estrada at the PCCI presidentiables' forum

With his experience in the country’s highest government post clearly distinguishing him from other presidential wannabes, former president Joseph Estrada yesterday stood tall amidst the other candidates yesterday at a forum organized by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industries (PCCI), providing practical and doable solutions to a host of problems the country continues to face.

Introduced as a man of action by moderator Tony Lopez, Estrada first thanked the members of the PCCI which he described as one business group that did not impose its influence on government affairs.

Estrada drew amused laughter from the audience  when after briefly recounting his long years in government service – preceded by a successful acting career which also spanned several decades – he concluded by saying this was the reason he was no longer used to talking and was more included to “act, act and act.”

Estrada consistently referred to peace and order as the most crucial factor in making any program for development work, from jobs generation to the creation of a more hospitable and attractive business environment for both local and foreign investors.

Ending corruption, meanwhile, was the lynchpin which Estrada pointed out would make a remarkable dent on poverty alleviation programs as well as create a more robust economy,  generate more jobs, and develop the agricultural sector.

Likewise, Estrada pointed out that increased efficiency in tax collection would be the best way of keeping the budget deficit at manageable levels.

The opposition standard bearer added that the energy sector would benefit immensely from increased investments in alternative renewable and “clean” sources such as hydroelectric and geothermal energy. He added that the privatization of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) which stalled under the current administration had to finally push through.

(Press Release from Erap.ph blog: http://erap.ph/409/2010/02/17/press-release-february-17-2010/)

On the 9th Year of EDSA 2 Coup: Former Philippine Estrada is Cleared to Run Again

Ultimately, the Comelec ruling allowing defamed and deposed President Joseph Estrada to seek again the presidency is very fair to the Filipino people. According to the decision:

"In the end, it is the Filipino people who would act as the final arbiter on whether they would have Estrada sit again as president...." 

 
Now, I'm not saying that the Comelec itself is fair (Remember the 2004 Hello Garci).

It just so happens that the ruling itself is fair to the people. Why did Comelec rule in favor of Estrada? To allow Illegitimate 'President' Gloria Arroyo's run for congresswoman in Pampanga less open to legal challenge.

In the end, or near end, the undemocratic, seditious EDSA 2 that deposed Erap came back to slap the faces of the gullibles one more time.

Still, the date of promulgation is so ironic-on the exact day nine years ago. Said Apolinario "Jun" Lozada, a senatoriable under Estrada's PMP party:

"On the same day that he was humbled, the phoenix will rise again,.. Nine years after a powerful few imposed their will on the people, it is time that the will of the poor and the powerless prevail."

Excerpts from The Daily Tribune headline report on the historic Comelec decision:

It's all systems go for former President Joseph "Erap" Estrada's second run for the presidency, a post he first held in 1998 only to be aborted by a coup d'etat instigated by the elite civil society and backed by treacherous military chiefs.

All arguments, rumors and innuendoes that Estrada is banned from running for the presidency again, or that he is withdrawing from the race, came to a stop after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday junked the three petitions filed last December seeking the disqualification of the former leader and in the process allowed Estrada to run in this year's presidential elections...

"This date of the promulgation of this decision saying that I, Joseph Estrada, am qualified to run for president, is significant to me personally because it was exactly on this day nine years ago, Jan. 20, 2001, when the honor to serve the Filipino people as president was stolen from me. Today, the opportunity to serve has been returned and it seems as if I am being told that I need to complete the mission that my administration started in 1998," said Estrada.

News Source: The Daily Tribune.

ALTERNATE URL: http://www.classicposters.com/headlines/20100121hed1.html