OZAMIZ CITY, Philippines -- The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has acknowledged the need to increase the number of its guerilla fronts and combatants if it were to win its protracted war against the government.

In a statement marking its 41st anniversary, it said that guerrilla fronts of its armed wing, the New People?s Army, should grow ?from around 120 to 180 in order to cover the rural congressional districts and gain the ability to deploy armed city partisan units in the urban congressional districts.?

To achieve this, the party said it ?must intensify the recruitment and the politico-military training of the Red fighters? and "win the steadfast support of the poor peasants, farm workers and lower middle peasants.?

The CPP also mocked anew the 2010 deadline set by President Macapagal-Arroyo to reduce it into insignificance.

The Arroyo administration has ?utterly failed to realize its pipe dream of destroying or reducing the armed revolutionary movement of the people to inconsequentiality,? the party said.

The CPP?s mass base declined starting in the early 1980?s following a nationwide purge of suspected government spies, sparking outrage among local supporters.

As in previous years, the CPP vowed to ?intensify our tactical offensives."

?The weapons for arming new units of the NPA at the levels of the district, province and region must be obtained mainly from the enemy through ambuscades, raids and other operations,? the statement reads.

The CPP also said it foresees a ?strategic stalemate? between its forces and the government within the next five years but ?we can look forward to still greater revolutionary possibilities within the next 10 years."