Seize the favorable revolutionary situation and advance to the next stage of the people's war!
We render the highest praise to all comrades and revolutionary masses who laid down their lives or were wounded in battle. Their heroism continues to inspire all Red commanders and fighters to persevere in armed struggle in the face of numerous and heavy trials and hardship, and the broad masses of Filipinos who steadily cherish and support the NPA.
The NPA unswervingly follows the absolute leadership of the proletarian Party that is guided by the revolutionary theory of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. This is the foundation of the historical and valiant victories achieved in more than four decades of life-and-death struggle to advance the protracted people’s war throughout the islands. With the guidance of the Party, the people’s army creatively applies Marxism-Leninism-Maoism in its revolutionary practice of armed struggle, base building, and agrarian revolution. It delivers many long-term and immediate economic, political, and socio-cultural victories to millions of workers, peasants, and other democratic sectors of Philippine society. The NPA performs a vital role in crushing the pillars of semicolonial and semifeudal exploitation and oppression, and in laying the foundations for genuine revolutionary changes in society. As the weapon of the proletarian Party and the people in defeating the armed forces of the exploitative and oppressive classes, the NPA has been tempered in more than 40 years of battle against the enemy. It continues to accumulate a wealth of experience in waging various forms of warfare in a mountainous and archipelagic country. The people’s army and the revolutionary masses have roundly defeated tens of counter-revolutionary campaigns waged by the reactionary armed forces despite its overwhelming advantage in manpower, weapons and equipment, training and the long-term support provided by US imperialism. The enemy suffers mounting casualties year upon year. It can no longer cover the growing number of guerilla fronts, fronts manned by company-sized NPA formations, and emergent battle fronts throughout the country.
In the first quarter of this year, the people’s army in our region launched a series of tactical offensives that killed 35 and wounded 35 troopers of the Philippine Army. We have captured several rifles and valuable military materiel. Similar tactical offensives were launched in many parts of the country, highlighting the increasing capability of the people’s army to foil enemy operations and campaigns and to bring the people’s war to a higher level.
Over the past years, the NPA has sharpened its application of the principle of widespread and intensive guerilla warfare based on a continually broadening and deepening mass base. The guerilla tactics of concentration, dispersal, and shifting are effectively utilized to enable NPA units to launch tactical offensives, deny targets to the enemy, and further expand guerilla zones and fronts. The NPA holds the initiative and can freely concentrate and disperse its forces like a fisherman casting his nets at sea. In the region, as with the rest of the country, the miserable failures of Oplan Bantay Laya 1 and 2 are resounding slaps in the faces of the AFP and the Arroyo regime who arrogantly declared the annihilation of the NPA by June 2010. Any new oplan being hatched by the enemy will surely be defeated by the people’s army and the people.
The NPA is the most consolidated mass organization under the absolute leadership of the Communist Party of the Philippines. It is composed primarily of peasant masses who take up arms to put an end to the feudal exploitation and oppression that has plagued Philippine society for several hundred years. The NPA possesses an iron discipline and a noble spirit of sacrifice borne by a thorough ideological and political awareness for the need to liberate the country from the clutches of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism, and to establish a free, democratic, prosperous and peaceful society.
Apart from battles and tactical offensives, the NPA is tireless in enlightening, organizing and mobilizing the masses for immediate and long-term issues. Revolutionary mass organizations and organs are formed at village-level upwards so that the masses may discover and develop self-reliance, collective labor and struggle, and self-governance based on collective decision making. The NPA is untiring in its efforts to raise the political consciousness of the masses especially with regard to the characteristics of Philippine society and revolution, human and social rights, and in teaching basic literacy and science. The NPA is also tireless in learning from the masses. These are the hallmarks of over 40 years of interaction and interdependence between the people’s army and the masses.
For many years, poor and lower-middle class peasants and farmhands have reaped the benefits of the minimum and some maximum programs of revolutionary land reform implemented by the people’s army. The old crop-sharing scheme of 70-30 in favor of the landlord has been lowered to 50-50, and in some cases to 30-70 in favor of the tenant. Usury has been lowered from 75% interest to 20% interest monthly. Onerous rates for farm equipment rentals, irrigation, milling and other agricultural services have likewise been lowered. In several areas, there have been victorious peasant struggles to raise the prices of agricultural produce. The people’s army continues to guide mass struggles and lead in developing various forms of cooperatives, livelihood and community welfare projects. Consequently, the masses provide unstinting support to the people’s army such as intelligence gathering, communications, production, recruitment, participation in tactical offensives and assistance in expanding guerilla zones and fronts.
However, many of the benefits enjoyed by the masses from the agrarian revolution program have been stopped or withdrawn by landlords, usurers and despotic businessmen after the people’s army temporarily left the area or after the masses were intimidated and maltreated by hired goons and the military.
As the people’s army and the masses accumulate greater victories, a growing number of middle forces, professionals, local government officials and Filipinos abroad recognize the need for genuine and radical change in Philippine society. The revolutionary united front in the region, in other parts of the country, and abroad is expanding.
The world economy, wracked by a financial crisis that brought capitalist countries to a standstill, is in a state of long-term depression. The hype about an economic recovery is a lie. Imperialist neoliberalism, the hope and pride of the capitalist world, is a nightmare that has caused great human exploitation and social unrest on a worldwide scale. There is growing discontent among the peoples of the world and revolutionary situations prevail in many parts of the globe. This sharpens the three principal contradictions between powerful imperialist countries and the peoples of the world; between capitalist countries and the backward, colonial, semicolonial and semifeudal countries; between the capitalist and working classes.
About 34 million workers lost their jobs in the past two years, about 212 million are unemployed worldwide. There were some 630 million families living in dire poverty (less than $1.25 daily) in 2008, about 215 million families were added to their number in 2009. Millions have lost their homes, victims of the housing bubble in the US and Europe, and victims of various disasters and conflicts in many parts of the globe.
Meanwhile, despite the collapse of the economies of capitalist and semicolonial and semifeudal countries, the number of billionaires increased from 793 in 2008 to 1,011 in 2009. Their combined assets grew from $3.6 trillion in 2008 to $4.8 trillion in 2009. Many of them raked in billions of dollars by manipulating the stock markets, and by continuing to exploit the labor power and skills of workers, peasants, and other working classes throughout the world.
The international crisis dealt a heavy blow to the country. Globalist liberalization, deregulation and privatization that have been in place for several decades crippled the economy and worsened the country’s backward and unindustrialized condition. Extreme levels of poverty, hunger and bankruptcy plague millions of families. There is a rapid rise in the number of the unemployed and underemployed. The globalist policy of labor flexibility and the increasing number of reactionary labor laws effectively curtail the workers right to demand just wages and other benefits. The CARP Extension with Reforms signed into law by Arroyo last August 2009 will intensify landgrabbing and the exploitation of the peasantry by the landlords and comprador bourgeoisie. These unjust conditions are exacerbated by the rampant increase in the prices of petroleum products, basic commodities and services. The people’s meager wages are further reduced by the imposition of various taxes to raise funds to cover the P293 billion budget deficit in 2009 brought about by unbridled corruption and unproductive spending by the Arroyo government.
The political crisis has come to a head after nine years of the Arroyo regime’s unparalleled corruption and rampant violations of human rights including the extrajudicial killings of more than 1,000 activists and the enforced disappearance of hundreds more. Former top-ranking military officers now hold positions in the cabinet and as closest advisers to the president. The integrity of the reactionary Constitution and laws is arbitrarily violated to serve the narrow interests of the Arroyo clique and to suppress the opposition and legitimate people’s protests. Fearful of the people’s rage and judgement when she leaves Malacañang, Arroyo is using an assortment of dirty maneuvers to remain in power. She has put in place a thick cordon sanitaire of loyal generals in strategic positions in the AFP, filled the Supreme Court with her appointees, and ensured that the majority of congressmen with high chances of being elected in May 2010 are her allies.
The elections in May will be a big tactical political battle for the people. It would be a significant victory for the people if they can put in place candidates who sincerely uphold democratic and nationalistic interests, and at the same time, ensure the electoral defeat of Arroyo’s allies and others who uphold anti-people and unpatriotic policies. The bourgeois, dirty and bloody politics upheld by corrupt politicians must be totally opposed, and the politics of true change asserted. The people’s army and the revolutionary movement must be prepared for a highly probable failure of election that can be exploited by Arroyo to prolong her stay in power or for the establishment of a fascist, right- wing junta. The people must be readied for revolutionary action and struggle.
The principal and historical social problems of the Filipino people cannot be solved by bourgeois elections or by changing presidents. Genuine change will come from revolutionary struggle that will overturn all forms of social corruption, exploitation and oppression. The NPA has taken an oath to crush the armed might of the reactionary and corrupt ruling system so that the people may achieve genuine freedom, democracy, prosperity and peace. The objective conditions in the region and the rest of the country are increasingly favorable for the people’s war to advance to a higher stage. The revolutionary movement must seize these favorable conditions to further strengthen the Party, NPA, and the national united front.
1) Strengthen the Party’s ideological, political and organizational leadership by contiguously adhering to the Party’s absolute leadership over the people’s army. The NPA should continually sharpen its grasp on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and apply it in daily revolutionary practice. Thoroughly sum-up our rich experience in armed struggle, base building, and agrarian revolution and create new concepts for advancement based on the obtaining conditions in our areas of work and the guidance and calls of the Cental Committee and Regional Committee. Methodically study the new tactics of the enemy, quickly adjust to the changing conditions, and defeat each of the enemy’s campaigns and operations. Effectively utilize the principles of concentration, dispersal and shifting and the re-structuring and redeployment of forces. Creatively and flexibly apply the concept of the platoon as the basic formation to effectively respond to the various needs in expansion, consolidation and military work.
2) Increase the frequency of regular and special tactical offensives to seize weapons and inflict more casualties on the enemy. Develop different forms of coordinated and synchronous tactical offensives that utilize the various forces of the people’s army. Push further the recruitment campaign for new cadres and Red fighters to increase and strengthen the ranks of full-time and part-time guerillas of the NPA. Totally thwart OBL2 and all other following counter-insurgency campaigns in the region. Orient and mobilize the masses and use political and military means to defeat the enemy’s triad and long-term basing tactics. Enlarge the arsenal of the people’s army through weapons fabrication and by seizing war materiel through tactical offensives. Methodically study, train in and enhance the tactics and techniques of guerilla warfare and elevate into theory the rich battle experience of Red commanders and fighters. Persist in being self-reliant and gradually build the economic foundations of the people’s war.
3) Expand our theater of operations in the region by building new guerilla fronts and linking these to existing fronts. Pay special attention to and maximize favorable social and geographical factors, while simultaneously noting unfavorable conditions and formulating plans to overcome these. Draw lessons from previous experiences in guerilla front building in mountainous areas and plains and correctly apply these in new areas. Appropriately apply the principle of trading space for time to evade intense enemy attacks. Enrich concepts and skills in solid and sweeping organizing and in mobilizing the masses quickly and in great number. Increase security awareness throughout the people’s army and the mass base.
4) Advance the campaign to gain more victories and benefits in the peasant masses anti-feudal struggle throughout the areas of operations of the people’s army in the region. Provide concrete solutions to the particular and immediate livelihood and social welfare difficulties of the people. Elevate to the next level the mass organizations and organs of political power, foster the spirit of collective labor and struggle, enrich their knowledge and practice of revolutionary dual tactics, and heighten their militancy and fighting will to assert their rights.
5) Advance various forms of mass struggles and the sectoral and multi-sectoral mass movement in the countryside and unite these with the mass struggles in the town centers and cities. The NPA should undertake alliance work according to the structure of requisites for building alliances among various members of the political spectrum in its area of operations.
We enjoin the corps of Party cadres and members, Red commanders and fighters in our region to take on bigger and heavier tasks and to prepare themselves for the greater sacrifices required for the victory of the national democratic revolution.
Long live the New People’s Army!
Long live the Communist Party of the Philippines!
Long live the National Democratic Revolution!
Advance the people’s war to a higher stage!
Be knowledgeable on all issues, proficient in all tasks, steadfast in the midst of fierce battles!
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