Philippine Communist Party urges increased attacks by New People's Army

This is from the Daily Tribune a leftist Manila based paper. The NPA (New People's Army) is the armed struggle wing of the CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines). Although the party is banned and the leadership in exile there are numerous legal fronts both political and other activist organisations. Offensives against offshoots of the separatist movements MNLF and MILF and the Abu Sayyaf are often used as pretexts to attack the MNFL or MILF according to some. There is obviously a certain amount of co-operation between the Muslim separatists and the NPA which are Maoist. Both the NPA and CPP are listed by the US as terrorist organisations. But heck the US was founded by terrorists who overthrew the Brits!
THe strategy urged in the release seems reasonable for a weak force that must attack only where the opposed forces are themselves weak. The NDP specialises in ambushes and otherwise avoids contact with the AFP when possible.

CPP orders NPA: Intensify attacks in Mindanao



08/20/2007

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has ordered all guerrilla fronts established by its New People’s Army (NPA) in Mindanao to launch tactical offensives against military camps and detachments in the island region after the deployment of more than 5,000 troops in Basilan and Sulu. (See related story)

In a two-page directive released by the Executive Committee of the Central Committee (EC-CC) of the CPP on Thursday, the leadership of the revolutionary underground said, “The deployment of thousands of troops from other regions to Basilan and Jolo (Sulu’s capital) leaves other Philippine Army units more thinly spread in NPA areas,” which the communist rebels “can take advantage of and launch tactical offensives against weakened and isolated units of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).”

The EC-CC stressed the NPA must carry out tactical offensives in areas where it operates alongside the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Noting the demoralization within the ranks of the Marines and the Army, the CPP leadership called on the “NPA and all revolutionary forces to take advantage of the heightened and widespread disenchantment within the AFP by intensifying organizing efforts among the rank-and-file and junior officers of the AFP.”

It claimed widespread disarray and




disenchantment have become more intense within the military as a result of the successive losses suffered by government forces especially in Basilan and Sulu.this past month “where Philippine Army units have been suffering one major defeat after another in armed encounters with the MILF and the MNLF.”

The CPP added the ongoing all-out offensive operations of the AFP in Basilan and Sulu are being directed not so much against the minuscule Abu Sayyaf bandit group, but actually against the MILF and the MNLF.

“The Arroyo regime is carrying out attacks against the Moro people to weaken their resolve in the struggle for self-determination and assertion of their ancestral domain. The regime wishes to take away the victories of the Moro people which they have won through several decades of revolutionary armed struggle,” it said.

The communist group also revealed that a new patriotic movement within the military is now aligned with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the political umbrella of 14 underground organizations, to pursue the armed and political struggle against the government.

“There is within the AFP a growing democratic and patriotic movement of soldiers who are disgruntled with the leadership of the AFP and the Arroyo regime,” it added.

“The revolutionary forces must directly and indirectly reach out to the rank-and-file and junior officers of the Armed Forces where they can to conscienticize them, enlighten them on the basic problems of the Filipino people,” it said.

THE CPP claimed soldiers “have become more disgusted with the Arroyo government and its top generals in the face of the reckless and all-out offensive being carried out in Basilan and Sulu and the extra-judicial killings, abductions, torture, forced evacuations and food blockades in line with its ‘Oplan Bantay Laya 2.’” Gerry Baldo