President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. during the State of the Nation Address 2024. Screenshot from RTVM/LIVE
MANILA, Philippines — There are only seven weakened communist New People’s Army guerrilla fronts in the country.
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. bared this during his third State of the Nation Address (Sona).
“No guerilla front remains active in our country today, only seven weak fronts to be dismantled, and they are the subject of focused operations,” Marcos said in his Sona.
READ: ‘There are no more active guerilla fronts,’ declares AFP
A weakened guerrilla front means it can no longer implement its programs like recruitment and generating resources for the armed struggle as opposed to active guerrilla fronts, according to the AFP.
The NPA, which wages the world’s longest Maoist insurgency, was established on March 29, 1969.
As of December 2023, the NPA is now down to about 1,200 fighters, far from its peak of around 25,000 in 1987, according to the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
READ: Almost 500 former NPA rebels seek amnesty
There is now an ongoing amnesty program for former NPA rebels. The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), whose armed wing is the NPA, previously rejected the government’s amnesty offer.
However, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines— the CPP’s political arm — and the government also agreed in November 2023 to come up with a framework to restart the peace talks.