OZAMIZ CITY—Maoist rebels in the country has vowed to achieve a stage of “strategic stalemate” between its strength and government’s within the next five years as the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) observes on Saturday its 41st year of founding as a revolutionary organization.
In its traditional anniversary statement, the CPP’s Central Committee said that if this goal is carried out successfully, “we can look forward to still greater revolutionary possibilities within the next ten years…”
The CPP’s pronouncement mocks the 2010 deadline set by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to reduce into insignificance the communist insurgency in the country.
A yearend statement of the Armed Forces of the Philippines has placed the current number of New Peoples Army (NPA) rebels on a decline.
“The CPP/NPA's strength in January 2002 was pegged to be around 12,000. Today, their strength is down to 7,100; a reduction of about 5,000,” the statement reads.
“With the sustained operational gains and momentum against the communist terrorists, the AFP is optimistic of the CPP/NPA's eventual defeat as their political and military influence continues to dwindle,” the statement continued.
But the NPA counters the Arroyo administration “has utterly failed to realize its pipe dream of destroying or reducing the armed revolutionary movement of the people to inconsequentiality.”
The rebel group also crowed about its ability to prevail over 14 years of Ferdinand Marcos’ strongman rule “and all the succeeding regimes that have pretended to be liberal democratic…”
The CPP said its “revolutionary optimism” is based on the lingering crisis affecting “the world capitalist system,” referring to the global economic depression, and its corresponding burden imposed on “the domestic ruling system.”
The CPP also claimed it has “the sufficient strength and critical mass to carry out the tasks and plans for advancing from the strategic defensive to the strategic stalemate (of) the people's war within the next five years.”
The CPP leadership emphasized the need to increase its number of NPA units and guerrilla fronts “from around 120 to 180 in order to cover the rural congressional districts and gain the ability to deploy armed city partisan units in the urban congressional districts.”
To achieve this, it said the rebel group “must intensify the recruitment and the politico-military training of the Red fighters” as well as “intensify our tactical offensives…”
“The weapons for arming new units of the NPA at the levels of the district, province and region must be obtained mainly from the enemy through ambuscades, raids and other operations,” the CPP anniversary statement read.
The local communist leadership also pointed out the key role of land reform campaigns “to win the steadfast support of the poor peasants, farm workers and lower middle peasants” and so provide it foothold into the rural communities.
Organized in 1968, the CPP has been waging four-decade warfare against the government to impose its socialist-oriented economic ideology and has since engaged in an on-and-off negotiation for a political settlement.
REPORT BY RYAN ROSAURO, PECOJON