NPA reaps more victories in Mindanao
The New People's Army (NPA) in Mindanao reaped more victories in 2004 as it advanced protracted people's war. In a statement on the NPA's 36th anniversary, the Mindanao Commission of the Communist Party of the Philippines said that the NPA in the island was able to launch 116 military actions and confiscated many high-powered firearms in 2004 compared to 93 military actions in 2003. Defensive actions have also been significantly reduced, said the Commission. However, even during defensive actions, Red commanders and fighters demonstrated a high level of courage and military capability, and in many instances, seized the initiative from military troops.
NPA membership in Mindanao still runs in the thousands, and includes the hundreds recruited last year. The guerrillas are organized in platoon and squad formations, according to the Commission.
The NPA was able to maintain its 38 guerrilla fronts covering 19 provinces, over 200 towns and cities and over 2,000 barrios island-wide. Established in these guerrilla fronts are the various mass organizations of peasants, women, youth, lumad and Moros. The revolutionary mass base in Mindanao runs to over 500,000, bigger than in 2003. Thousands of people have benefited from antifeudal struggles as well as from services rendered by NPA guerrilla units such as free medical care and literacy programs.
On the other hand, the NPA has maintained its friendly relations with numerous elements of the CAFGU, AFP and PNP who sympathize with the revolutionary cause and secretly provide support to the revolutionary movement.
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