Army remains vigilant as NPA told to mount attacks vs troops

NPA rebels (file photos) slain in Negros Occidental clash

MANILA, Philippines — The New People’s Army (NPA) was ordered to mount attacks against government forces as it celebrates its 55th anniversary on Friday (March 29), a call which the military said bears no weight.

“We need to exert all out effort,” the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Central Committee said in its statement addressed to NPA cadres and card-carrying party members.

READ: NPA’s 54th anniv: CPP touts ‘steady advance’; AFP sneers at ‘irrelevant’ movement

CPP spokesperson Marco Valbuena said the NPA should carry out all possible kinds of tactical offensives employing all kinds of weapons “from rocks, machetes, booby traps, rifles and land mines and all sorts of weapons that the people can craft.”

Valbuena also said NPA are ordered to ambush the government troops’ reconnaissance units, perimeter defense or supply lines and to attack their isolated outposts, among other moves.

Philippine Army spokesperson Col. Louie Dema-ala shrugged off this call, but he said the military is prepared to respond to attacks.

“We all know that the CPP-NPA is already on the brink of collapse and they do not have active guerrilla fronts as of this date,” Dema-ala told INQUIRER.net in a text message.

Dema-ala added: “The Philippine Army is still vigilant to the possible terroristic activities that they may launch.”

INQUIRER.net also asked Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla for comment, but she has not responded as of this posting.

The CPP Central Committee said these orders should be carried out to arrest the weakening of the NPA.

“Our forces have been weakened to a large extent by internal errors, weaknesses and shortcomings as a result of years of military conservatism and passivity,” the Central Committee message further said.

READ: AFP vows to dismantle remaining communist guerrilla fronts before year-end

The NPA, which wages the world’s longest Maoist insurgency, was established on March 29, 1969.

As of December 2023, the NPA was down to about 1,500 fighters, far from its peak of around 25,000 in 1987, according to the  AFP.

Padilla said the AFP vowed to eliminate the Maoist insurgency by the end of 2024.

Last year, CPP’s political arm, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, began its negotiations with the Philippine government to come up with a framework to restart the peace talks.