Correspondence Reports:
From Southern Tagalog
ST continues to advance in the face of intense attacks by the regime

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

The regime's all-out attacks in Southern Tagalog (ST) have failed to stem the revolutionary movement's continued advance in the region.

Since 1998, the reactionary government has been experimenting with various tactics and doctrines aimed at destroying the revolutionary forces' strongholds. For this, the Arroyo regime has made ST, Mindoro island in particular, a national priority, deploying more military, police and paramilitary forces. The 13 assault battalions assigned to the region in 1999 have since been reinforced, bringing the number to 38 by the first half of 2003. The regime has unleashed terror in the region through widespread and intense violations of the people's human rights.

The revolutionary movement in Southern Tagalog, however, has not been cowed to submission.

The entire region celebrated the revolutionary movement's most recent victories on the occasion of the Communist Party of the Philippines' 35th founding anniversary. In a statement issued by the Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee (RC-ST) Secretariat , the RC-ST said that the Party, people's army and the revolutionary people have been drawing valuable lessons in their more than five years' experience in confronting the enemy's intense suppression. These lessons have been taken to heart to further advance the revolutionary struggle in ST.

During the period covered, the Party in Southern Tagalog enjoyed the biggest membership ever in the region's history. In addition, Party members in the region are now more well-versed in Marxist-Leninist-Maoist theory and in the theory and practice of the democratic revolution.

The mass base in both the region's countryside and urban areas continues to expand and gain strength. Guerrilla fronts that had to go on a temporary retreat in the last few years because of intensified enemy operations have started to advance anew. In fact, the NPA has been able to launch resounding tactical offensives in these guerrilla fronts.

Tens of thousands of people have been organized and several hundreds of thousands have come under the revolutionary movement's influence in more than 10 guerrilla fronts in the region. In these guerrilla fronts, there are several score platoons of the people's army armed with high-powered rifles and some heavy weapons with anti-aircraft, anti-tank and anti-fortification capabilities. There are also several thousand people's militia and self-defense corps armed with indigenous weapons, low-powered firearms and pistols.

Implementing the policy of maintaining the platoon as the people's army's basic formation has proven effective in strengthening the capabilities of NPA units during offensive and defensive battles and in conducting mass work. In guerrilla fronts, the people's army has been upgraded to company strength and has undergone consolidation. Thus, the NPA in the region now has a stronger capability to frustrate the enemy's attempts to annihilate the people's army and wipe out guerrilla fronts and guerrilla zones.

The revolutionary movement in ST regards the holding of the Second Regional Conference on Mass Work in the Countryside as a great victory. It was in this conference that the experiences of the various provinces were compiled, systematized and studied in detail to come up with a comprehensive approach in solving problems encountered in advancing agrarian revolution, base-building and setting up organs of political power.

The democratic mass movement in the urban areas remains ever militant in the face of the all-out suppression of democratic organizations and the murder of their members. The mass movement in the urban areas also plays an important role in resisting fascism and militarization in the countryside. The mass movement consistently exposes and assails every act of violence against the people. At the same time, the growing list of crimes perpetrated by the military's RSOT (Reengineered Special Operations Team) during its operations continues to teach the people not to support the enemy.

Notwithstanding the victories it has achieved, the entire revolutionary movement in the region faces many more challenges, stated the RC-ST. These challenges include, among others, the continuous application of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism in the revolution's daily life, upholding the proletarian style of work of simple living and hard struggle, and continuing efforts to consummate the victories of the Second Great Rectification Movement. Said the Secretariat, the Party is fully confident that the revolutionary movement will reap even bigger victories in the months and years to come and continue gaining strength towards the further advance of Party-building, armed struggle, united front and alliance work, the revolutionary mass movement and mass campaigns.

07 January 2004
English Edition

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