LUCENA CITY, Philippines—The Communist Party of the Philippines has ordered the New People’s Army to intensify attacks on government forces and urged all guerilla units to seize more weapons this year.
“Under the direction of the CPP, the NPA will undertake more frequent tactical offensives in order to annihilate weak enemy units and seize more weapons… every NPA command must gun for a record increase in the number of weapons seized from the reactionary military, paramilitary and police forces,” the CPP said in a statement dated December 31.
On its 45th anniversary on December 26, the CPP said it planned to increase the number of guerilla fighters to 25,000. The military estimates the current strength of the NPA at around 4,000.
The CPP said it also wanted to raise the number of guerrilla fronts to 200, from 110 scattered in 71 of the country’s 81 provinces.
The party scoffed at the military’s “Oplan Bayanihan” for its failure to reduce the armed strength of the communist rebels “to inconsequentiality” by the middle of 2013.
“The CPP must direct the heightening of people’s war nationwide, leading the intensification of the revolutionary armed struggle while waging widespread land reform campaigns and strengthening its mass base and building the structures of the people’s democratic government,” the party said.
The NPA, the CPP’s armed wing, has been waging war against the government for the past 44 years in what is considered world’s longest-running Maoist-inspired rebellion.
The communist insurgency actually dates back to 1946. It was then waged by the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas and its military arm, the Hukbong Mapaglaya ng Bayan, both of which were reorganized in 1968 into the Communist Party of the Philippines under Jose Maria Sison and its military arm, the New People’s Army.
Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zagala, AFP public information chief, defended the military’s counterinsurgency campaign called the Internal Peace and Security Plan Bayanihan.
Zagala claimed “Oplan Bayanihan” has freed 29 provinces from communist influence.
The AFP spokesman said that instead of waging violence to make themselves relevant, the CPP-NPA should surrender and commit themselves to the peace process without preconditions.
In Southern Luzon, more NPA rebels were surrendering to government security forces due to “hardships” and “failed promises” of the revolutionary movement, according to the military.
Before Christmas, five alleged NPA Army rebels operating in Quezon surrendered to the government forces.
Lieutenant General Caesar Ronnie Ordoyo, the head of the Armed Forces Southern Luzon Command (Solcom), said 25 rebels surrendered in Southern Tagalog region and 26 in Bicol.
The CPP predicted more powerful mass protests against the Aquino administration in 2014 due to perceived “widespread corruption, worsening economic conditions, unabated destruction of the environment, blind puppetry to the US imperialists and utter failure to address the urgent needs of the people amid natural and man-made disasters”.
“Aquino’s promises of clean government and reform have all fallen flat. Aquino’s rhetoric of ‘hope’ is roundly repudiated and dismissed with widespread cynicism among the working class and even the middle class of small professionals, teachers, government employees, students, media practitioners and small and middle businessmen,” the CPP said.
“Aquino is set to become the narrowest target of mass protests as the people increasingly see through the thin veil of his media-centered PR gimmicks and outright lies perpetuated by the yellow army of media and survey manipulators,” added the CPP.
The party also noted that 2014 has started with another round of oil price hikes.
“A new hike in the taxes imposed on cigarettes and other commodities—a foreboding of greater hardships for the Filipino people in the coming year,” said the CPP.
The CPP maintained that while the ruling classes are shielded from the economic crisis, the majority of the people wallow in worsening unemployment, further depression of real wages, rising prices of food, medicine, fuel and other basic commodities, deteriorating health, education and other social services, and environmental degradation.