DAVAO CITY—A group of former communist guerrillas based in Mindanao became the first to respond positively to a call by top communist leader Jose Ma. Sison for all forces of the Left to unite and reconcile as the incoming Duterte administration prepares to resume formal peace negotiations with the communist movement.
The Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa-Mindanao (RPM-M), in a statement issued by its central committee, said it is declaring a unilateral ceasefire with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed component, New People’s Army (NPA), in response to Sison’s call for reconciliation among forces of the Left.
The RPM-M statement said it welcomes Sison’s call for reconciliation with “rejectionist” factions of the communist movement, referring to rebels who broke away from CPP and NPA to form separate underground Leftist groups.
“Past differences can be overcome by current resolutions which are good and forward-looking toward a better and brighter social system,” Sison said in an online interview with the Inquirer on May 19.
Conflicts on ideology and tactics fueled factionalism in the communist movement in the early 1990s.
RPM-M, which also maintains an armed component, was once part of the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa-Pilipinas (RPMP), the biggest group of former communist rebels who broke off from the mainstream communist party.
Defensive stance
Members in Central Mindanao of RPMP, however, also broke off from the group after RPMP was wracked by conflict over a peace agreement with the administration of deposed President Joseph Estrada.
In its statement addressed to Sison, RPM-M said “we have had antagonistic relationships with you and the New People’s Army since you considered” former communist rebels “as counterrevolutionary, pseudo progressive and a traitor to the masses.”
Fearing attacks by NPA, RPM-M said it has never let its guard down.
Despite the feud, however, RPM-M and RPA (Revolutionary Proletarian Army, the RPM-M armed component) “still considered the CPP and NPA members as comrades in the struggle for the liberation of the oppressed.”
“We have never considered the party (CPP) and its members as enemy of the working class,” said the RPM-M statement.
In the wake of Sison’s call for healing among forces of the Left, RPM-M said hope has been revived for cooperation among revolutionary groups.
RPM-M said it hoped that its declaration of a unilateral ceasefire with CPP and NPA would mean “victory for the democratic forces in the country and a push for a more dynamic and renewed revolutionary movement in the Philippines.”
President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has made peace talks with communist rebels one of the priorities of his administration, offering to free all political detainees and inviting Sison, who is in self-exile in The Netherlands, to come home. Karlos Manlupig, Inquirer Mindanao