COMBAT-READY In this 2016 photo, New People’s Army rebels gather in Misamis Oriental province to celebrate the group’s founding anniversary. —JIGGER J. JERUSALEM
MANILA, Philippines — The 54th founding anniversary of the communist New People’s Army on Wednesday, March 29, prompted a war of words between both sides of the conflict.
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) touted the government’s failure to fully crush the NPA, but the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said the Maoist movement is nearing its end.
“The NPA has steadily advanced and surmounted every disadvantage and setback at every historical juncture,” the CPP Central Committee said in its anniversary message.
“It has frustrated the enemy’s campaigns of encirclement and suppression one after another.”
The CPP, while stressing that the AFP’s encirclement campaigns “largely failed to attain its declared objective” of crushing the NPA, admitted that some regions or guerrilla fronts suffered from losses or significant setbacks “due to internal weaknesses and shortcomings.”
On the other hand, AFP spokesperson Col. Medel Aguilar said the NPA has no reason to celebrate its founding anniversary.
“Communist Insurgency is [nearing] its end. With few remaining of its hardcores and deceived supporters, the CPP could hardly find a reason to celebrate the 54th founding anniversary of the NPA,” AFP spokesperson Medel Aguilar said in a statement.
“Let us pray that there will be no more 55th to think about,” Aguilar added.
Aguilar also said the CPP should accept its “irrelevance”, other than the fact that the communist movement made the government realize its shortcomings.
“The most difficult challenge and a bitter pill to swallow is the realization of the CPP of its irrelevance in the life of the Filipino people.
“As a consolation, the party can partly take credit in making the government realize its shortfalls in governance, particularly in the delivery of basic services, and in pushing it to do more and serve its people better.
The official said if the CPP wants to survive, it has to disband the NPA “and submit to the will of the Filipino people.”
Government estimates show that the NPA is now down to around 2,000 fighters with some 1,800 firearms in its arsenal.
READ: NPA only has around 1,800 firearms in its arsenal — AFP chief
One of the world’s longest standing communist armed rebellion, the NPA was established on March 29, 1969.