The NPA cannot be destroyed by guns.

Guided by the foundations of Marxism, Leninism, and Maoism, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) named the New People’s Army (NPA), continues to battle their 54-year long protracted people’s war in the countryside. Even with the continuous civil war that the government imposes to the rebellion, their numbers have not dwindled with time. The death of their Founder Jose Maria Sison has not made them lose sight of what is to be won: national democracy and a socialist tomorrow. Amidst the economic and political turmoil of the 21st Century Philippines, the Maoist NPA continue to persist with their Communist Revolution. 

What sets the New People’s Army from the Philippine Army is its long history of struggle against colonialism and imperialism. Whereas the Armed Forces of the Philippines is bound to the military history of serving foreign powers such as Spain with the Guardia Civil and the United States with the Macabebe Scouts, the NPA derives its history from the revolutionary army of the Katipunan and the HUKBALAHAP who fought against imperial troops. With this historical dialectics, they claim to be the successors of the revolution–pushing forward its ideology of national democracy.

Presented by CPP Chairman Jose Maria Sison, national democracy is the movement which aims to establish a people's democracy in the country. It aims to liquidate imperialism and feudalism to achieve full independence and democratic reforms. The national democrats believe that the root of all poverty in the Philippines can be traced with the colonial history of the country. They argue that imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism work together to maintain the status quo, and only through a people’s war can the status quo be overthrown. In the plight for its vision, the Party, along with the People’s Army and the Democratic Front are again guided by the works of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, and Mao Zedong in achieving their goal. As such, the Communist Party gets its stronghold in ideological power–another difference of the rebels to the government forces.

The New People’s Army cannot be destroyed by guns, for they are not an army of militia; they are an army of ideology. Their biggest rifle is not the AK-47, it is the Communist Manifesto and its revelations in current society. Hence, they claim their identity to be the answer to poverty with the sweet promises of a just society. Their identity itself serves to be their replenishment of fighting forces, recruiting the oppressed masses from the line of workers and farmers who are desperate for change into rebels in the name of socialism. As Mao Zedong said, political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Meaning it is the Party and the ideology that commands the gun, and it is not the gun who is commanding the Party.

The mere existence of the New People’s Army is a manifestation of the strength of Marxist ideology. Perhaps if we start to take into account what makes the army strong is its ideological foundation, a middle ground would be found. As such., the presence of the NTF-ELCAC is useless in this regard, for unlike firearms, knowledge cannot be killed by fire. In this civil war, the people may die in the wake of the revolution, but the books that started it will not. The rebellion will live, just as the books that started it will live forever. And as long as there is injustice, the Party will stand as an opposition.

Footnote: The NPA, ironically, have only gotten stronger each time a regime tries to vanquish their forces, with the Martial Law of Ferdinand Marcos Sr. as example. With the formation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), how can we be certain that we are not succumbing to their success? Will current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. see the twilight of the Party which has been his father's vehement ire?

References:

Avineri, S. (1968). The Social and Political Thought of Karl Marx (Vol. 619). Cambridge University Press. 

Bielakowski, A. M. (Ed.). (2013). Ethnic and Racial Minorities in the US Military [2 volumes]: An Encyclopedia [2 volumes]. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. 

Guerrero, A, (1971). Philippine Society and Revolution. Manila, Pulang Tala Publications. 

Ladwig, W. (2019). When the Police are the Problem: The Philippine Constabulary and the Hukbalahap Rebellion. Oxford Academic. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198094883.003.0002 

Mao, Z. (1964). The Little Red Book. People's Liberation Army General Political Department. 

Sison, J. M., & Teodoro, L. V. (1967). Struggle for National Democracy. Quezon City: Progressive Publications.