02/27/2023
Oras de Peligro
dala ng mga bunga ni Ninoy Aquino, Joma Sison, EDSA People Power Revolution.
Communist Party of the PhilippinesâNew People's Army
Formed December 26, 1968
Disbanded Group is active.
First Attack
August 21, 1971: Three members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New Peopleâs Army (CPP-NPA) threw four grenades onto the stage of a Liberal Party rally in Manilaâs Plaza Miranda. Then-President Ferdinand Marcos was initially blamed for the attack, which had killed much of his opposition. (9 killed, 95 wounded).
Narrative Summary
The Communist Party of the PhilippinesâNew Peopleâs Army (CPP-NPA) seeks to overthrow the Philippine government in favor of a new state led by the working class and to expel U.S. influence from the Philippines. The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) was founded in 1968, and its armed wing, the New Peopleâs Army (NPA), was founded in the following year. Because the party and its armed wing are so closely intertwined, they are often referred to together as the CPP-NPA. [4] [5] [6]
The CPP-NPA was established by Jose Maria Sison, a popular former student activist who led a Maoist-oriented youth faction within the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP), which was established in 1930. For decades, the PKP participated in electoral boycotts and used a guerrilla army to fight Japanese colonialism, U.S. colonialism, and Filipino elites. In 1957, Republic Act No. 1700 banned the PKP and any of its successors, which would later include the CPP-NPA from participating in politics. Even after PKP elites largely gave up on the idea of armed struggle, Sison argued for continuing the violence. Beginning in 1967, in what he called the First Great Rectification Movement, Sison proposed major changes within the PKP, allegedly to reestablish the Communist movement properly in the Philippines. [7] After being forced out of the PKP for his criticism of its leaders, Sison established the CPP with his supporters on Mao Zedongâs birthday, December 26, 1968. Sison was chosen as the CPPâs chairman and adopted a pseudonym, Amado Guerrero. [8] Also in December 1968, Sison met BernabĂ© Buscayno, another former activist who had commanded an armed group during a Communist-led uprising in the 1950s called the Huk Rebellion. Together with Buscayno, who still commanded his armed group, Sison set up the the NPA on March 29, 1969. Buscayno became the NPAâs first commander, bringing his fighters into the newly established militant wing. [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
The CPP-NPA was originally based in the city of Capas on the Philippinesâ largest island, Luzon, and it began with sixty combatants and thirty-five rifles. Although it clashed with government forces, the CPP-NPA initially concentrated on its own growth and strengthening its support among the peasantry, with party activists working to rally peasants to its cause. [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] The CPP-NPA gained members and momentum from the First Quarter Storm, a leftist wave of student demonstrations, rallies, and marches that occurred between January and March 1970. During those protests, held against then-President Ferdinand Marcos, student leaders demanded constitutional change. Outrage after Marcosâ brutal crackdown on the demonstrations boosted the CPP-NPAâs ranks, with participants joining the CPP-NPA and causing it to surpass the PKP in popularity. [19] [20] [21] [22]
Also in 1970, Sison outlined the CPP-NPAâs guiding principles in a book called Philippine Society and Revolution. He identified the Philippinesâ three major problems as bureaucrat capitalism, feudalism, and U.S. imperialism, advocating the Maoist concept of a protracted peopleâs war to effect change in Filipino society. [23] [24] [25] In the same year, the Philippine government conducted a large military offensive against the CPP-NPA, decimating its small central group of fighters. [26]
In February 1971, Sison met with CPP-NPA Central Committee members to discuss his plan to attack a Manila rally of the Liberal Party, which opposed President Marcos. The purpose of the attack was to provoke another government crackdown and ideally gain support for the CPP-NPA. On August 21, three CPP-NPA members threw four grenades onstage at the rally in Manilaâs Plaza Miranda before fleeing the city to a CPP-NPA camp. Liberal Party members blamed President Marcos for the attack, which had killed much of his opposition. Marcos, who blamed the CPP-NPA for the bombing, responded by suppressing leftist political activity and suspending habeas corpus. These measures marked an increase in Marcosâ power. In response to Marcosâ repression, hundreds of student recruits joined the CPP-NPA. [27] [28] Meanwhile, Sison denied that the CPP-NPA had been involved in the attack. [29]
In July 1972, the CPP-NPA received its first shipment of weapons from the Chinese government, which had been supporting the group rhetorically since its 1969 establishment. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) was able to seize most of the weapons, and it then conducted additional massive military operations against the CPP-NPA. [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] In September, the Philippine government accused the CPP-NPA of attempting to assassinate the defense minister; many viewed this accusation as part of an effort to justify Marcosâ declaration of martial law in the same month, which further consolidated Marcosâ power and restricted political freedoms. [35] [36] Under martial law, thousands of Marcosâ opponents were arrested. CPP-NPA activists living in Philippine cities fled to the organizationâs bases in the countryside, and some of the activists ultimately became fighters. Other student activists also left the cities and joined the CPP-NPA. During the time of martial law, the CPP-NPA successfully established relationships with local leaders in the countryside. [37] [38]
In 1973, a commission created by the CPP-NPA founded the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF or NDFP). Attempting to unify and coordinate various leftist groups, the NDF served as an umbrella organization for the CPP-NPA and other mass revolutionary organizations. Media and academic sources have sometimes described the NDF as the CPP-NPAâs political wing, since the CPP-NPA was still illegal under Republic Act No. 1700. The CPP-NPA dominated and led the NDF, and the Philippine government, among others, has used the name âCPP-NPA-NDFâ or âCNNâ to refer to the larger entity formed through the cooperation of the CPP-NPA and the NDF. [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44]
In 1974, Sison published Specific Characteristics of Our Peopleâs War, in which he outlined the CPP-NPAâs first five years and set out policies for continued armed struggle. One policy was the decentralization of armed operations. Sison directed CPP-NPA units to stay independent of one another, to conduct attacks from mountainous areas, and to limit their offensives to small police and military ambushes. [45] [46]
In 1976, the CPP-NPA lost the Chinese governmentâs support when the Philippines and China normalized their relations after years of severed ties after the Chinese Communist Party rose to power in 1949,. [47] [48] [49] Throughout 1976, the Philippine government captured and jailed many important CPP-NPA members, including Buscayno. After Buscaynoâs capture, Rodolfo Salas served as the NPAâs commander, and when Sison was captured the following year, Salas also assumed chairmanship of the CPP. [50] [51] Despite the removal of key figures, the CPP-NPA was able to spread beyond Luzon to Visayas and Mindanao, the Philippinesâ other major regions. At the time, the Philippine military was fighting the CPP-NPA as well as the Muslim separatist rebels in the south, prioritizing the latter. [52]
The 1978 Philippine elections caused major tensions within the CPP-NPA. While the CPP-NPAâs Manila-Rizal committee, based in the Philippine capital, was mobilizing support for candidates opposed to Marcos, the central leadership insisted on a total boycott of the elections and emphasized armed struggle. The overtly fraudulent election results in favor of Marcosâ government again increased the CPP-NPAâs membership. [53] [54]
On January 17, 1981, Marcos formally ended martial law, thus allowing some political expression by opposition and alleviating pressure on the CPP-NPA. Although Marcos intensified extrajudicial executions and other forms of domestic repression, the CPP-NPA was able to return to urban areas and form relationships with legal oppositional organizations. While Philippine forces were achieving victories against Muslim separatist rebels in the south, on which the governmentâs efforts were focused, the CPP-NPA was conducting increasingly successful attacks against the government throughout the country. A surge in recruits allowed the CPP-NPA to attempt tactics beyond small guerrilla units, eventually forming military battalions in Luzon and Visayas. Additionally, the CPP-NPA maintained so-called âsparrowâ units, which consisted of one to five operatives who assassinated government forces in urban areas. The Philippine army began its largest military offensive against the CPP-NPA in 1984, and CPP-NPA-related violence reached its height in 1985 with 1,282 military and police deaths, 1,362 civilian deaths, and 2,134 CPP-NPA deaths. The CPP-NPA conducted especially deadly campaigns in Mindanao using urban-based guerrilla tactics. However, rising paranoia about infiltration by Philippine government agents led to massive purges within the group, especially in Mindanao, in which hundreds of members suspected of collaborating with the state were killed. Besides its militant activity, the CPP-NPA continued to build relationships in rural communities throughout the 1980s. Members taught, worked alongside peasants, and served as guards against bandits. [55] [56] [57] [58]
The 1986 elections caused major tensions within the CPP-NPA when Corazon Aquinoâwidow of a popular oppositional senator who had been assassinatedâran against Marcos. As in 1978, the central leadership ordered a boycott of elections, but many CPP-NPA members ignored the command. After days of mass protests called the People Power Revolution, which were held in support of Aquino and against Marcos, Aquino won the election and Marcos left the country. Later that year, Aquino ordered the release of political prisoners, including Sison and Buscayno. Only Sison returned to CPP-NPA-related activities; however, soon after his release, he went into self-exile in the Netherlands, from which he continued to play a leading role in the movement. He became chief political consultant to the NDF but denied continued involvement with the CPP-NPA. However, at around the same time, Salas was replaced as CPP chairman by Armando Liwanag, widely considered an alias for Sison. [59] [60] [61] [62] [63] [64] [65]
Beginning in December 1986, the Aquino administration and the CPP-NPA engaged in short-lived peace negotiations and a ceasefire. However, in January 1987, CPP-NPA membersâhoping to force a brutal government action that would justify ending talksâinfiltrated a group of peasants who were protesting in support of agricultural reform outside Malacañang Palace, the official presidential residence. Government forces shot at the protesters, killing thirteen. [66] [67] At the urging of the United States and domestic elites, Aquino declared total war on the CPP-NPA, which in turn conducted attacks, especially in Manila, that alienated moderate supporters and led to a decline in membership. [68]
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the CPP-NPA suffered various organizational losses. The Philippine government captured key leaders, and internal purges again resulted in dozens of CPP-NPA membersâ deaths. Internal debate over the organizationâs future further weakened it. On December 26, 1991, under the name Armando Liwanag, Sison published âReaffirm Our Basic Principles and Rectify Errors.â He insisted that the CPP-NPA reaffirm its commitment to the protracted peopleâs war, armed struggle, and a rural-based strategy rather than waste resources on negotiations or legal action. Sisonâs publication sparked the Second Great Rectification Movement, which divided the CPP-NPA into rejectionists (RJs) and reaffirmists (RAs); the former disagreed with Sisonâs ideas and the latter supported those ideas. Rejectionists were forced out of the CPP-NPA or voluntarily left, due to their belief in at least some role for lawful protest or their disagreement with what they termed Sisonâs âStalinism.â Rejectionists established their own political parties or participated in other legal organizations promoting societal reform, such as trade unions or nongovernmental organizations. Some rejectionists engaged in local militant activity, but in general, rejectionist groups remained small and easily dismantled. One exception was the Alex Boncayao Brigade (ABB), which had been established as a CPP-NPA urban guerrilla force in the mid-1980s; the ABB broke away from the CPP-NPA in the early 1990s along with other rejectionists and continued its militant activities. On the other hand, the reaffirmistsâwho comprised most of the CPP-NPAâsupported the principles espoused by Sison, and the CPP-NPA consequently returned its focus to the countryside. Additionally, the CPP-NPAâs Central Committee approved Sisonâs policies in its July 1992 plenum. [69] [70] [71] [72] [73]
There is conflicting information about the official leadership of the CPP-NPA after the early 1990s. After the Second Great Rectification Movement, Benito Tiamzon may have assumed the formal position of chairman. Some sources have continued to list Liwanag as CPP-NPA chairman from the 1990s onward, while others have listed Tiamzon as chairman for the same time period. Regardless of who holds the formal title of chairman, Tiamzon and his wife Wilma have directed the CPP-NPAâs activities from within the Philippines since the early 1990s, while Sisonâunder the alias Liwanagâhas allegedly continued to influence the organizationâs strategic direction from the Netherlands. [74] [75] [76] [77]
Throughout the 1990s, the CPP-NPA regained some of its strength. According to its own statements, the group returned to the same level of popular support that it had enjoyed in the 1980s due to its revival of a rural, mass-based strategy. The Philippine military blamed other factors for the resurgence, such as the 1992 repeal of Republic Act No. 1700. The repeal allowed the CPP to become a legal political party, although the group continued to express its opposition to electoral participation. Despite this avowed rejection of legal rather than armed struggle, the CPP-NPA has engaged in peace talks with the Philippine government, usually through the NDF. Even after the 1992 repeal of Republic Act No. 1700, the NDF has continued to represent the CPP-NPA in official talks with the government. [78] [79]
In 1995, under the administration of President Fidel Ramos, negotiations culminated in the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), signed by NDF leadership. The JASIG paved the way for future peace talks by guaranteeing free and safe movementâwithout fear of search, surveillance, or arrestâthroughout the country for those involved with negotiations, whether Philippine government officials, CPP-NPA members, or other NDF members. [80] [81] The parties signed another significant agreement in 1998, the Comprehensive Agreement to Respect Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), which was an attempt to protect civilians from the violence between the government and the CPP-NPA. [82] [83] However, talks broke down soon after CARHRIHL, and conflict resumed at high levels when Joseph Estrada assumed the presidency. [84]
The pattern of alternating between negotiations and violence continued throughout the 2000s. When Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo replaced Estrada in 2001, she held some negotiations with the CPP-NPA, but those negotiations stalled after the United States listed the CPP-NPA as a terrorist organization at Arroyoâs request in 2002. Philippine forces increased their operations against the organization throughout the 2000s and claimed in 2010 to have drastically reduced its ranks. [85] [86] When Benigno Aquino III assumed the presidency that year, the government again attempted talks with the CPP-NPA. However, a ceasefire broken by the CPP-NPA, continued fighting, and alleged human rights violations by both sides have hindered the talks. The CPP-NPA has continued to conduct attacks and clash with Philippine forces, and the parties have been unable to agree on conditions for the resumption of negotiations. Within the organization, a rift between Sison in the Netherlands and the local CPP-NPA leadership has increased due to the formerâs growing willingness to engage in peace talks and the latterâs continued reluctance. [87] [88] [89]
Source: https://web.stanford.edu/group/mappingmilitants/cgi-bin/groups/print_view/149
