NEW PEOPLE�S ARMY IN MINDANAO REAPS FURTHER VICTORIES

Mindanao Commission
Communist Party of the Philippines
March 29, 2005

The units of the New People�s Army in Mindanao and the Filipino masses who comprise the revolutionary movement celebrate with utmost joy the 36th anniversary of the NPA which was founded on March 29, 1969 under the leadership of the Communist Party of the Philippines (Marxism-Leninism-Maoism). We celebrate this occasion because the NPA has persistently waged the people�s democratic revolution which seeks to attain full liberation and genuine democracy for the people.

Gains at the National Level

In the entire country, the NPA continues to reap more victories. It continues to operate in the 128 guerilla fronts nationwide spanning 70 provinces, in more than 800 municipalities, and in more than 10,000 barrios. The NPA has upheld the people�s democratic government in ever-widening areas in the countrysides. Its mass base counts to the millions, many of whom can be found in the villages and who have benefited from the genuine agrarian reform and the social services implemented by the NPA. Membership in the guerilla units runs to thousands. These units have successfully launched tactical offensives against the fascist AFP troops. The NPA steadily defeats the rotten system dominated by US imperialism, big bourgeois compradors and big landlords presently represented by the US-Macapagal-Arroyo regime.

The NPA has obtained these victories with persistent effort and sacrifice by the Red fighters and its Commanders. These victories were also attained because of the many martyrs and heroes who have devoted their lives in fierce battles against the fascist troops of the reactionary government. Today, we pay homage to their martyrdom.

Gains in Mindanao

Here in Mindanao, the NPA has gained further victories in advancing the people�s protracted war, and as such, contributed significantly in the strengthening of the people�s army nationwide.

The NPA has maintained the 38 guerilla fronts in the whole island covering 19 provinces, more than 200 towns and cities and more than 2,000 barrios. Established within these guerilla fronts are various mass organizations of peasants, women, youth, the Lumads and the Moro. Mindanao�s revolutionary mass base has reached more than 500,000, increasing its number from the previous year. Thousands of the masses have gained economic benefits out of the struggles waged against feudal and semi-feudal exploitation. They have also benefited from various social services such as free medical care, literacy programs and other services implemented by the guerilla units.

In the military arena, the NPA has also continuously scored many gains with 116 actions successfully launched, seizing numerous high powered firearms. This is an increase from the 93 actions implemented in the previous year. Our defensive actions have notably reduced. And even in defensive actions, the Red fighters and commanders demonstrated their bravery and military expertise. In many instances, they were able to seize the initiative from the enemy troops.

Membership of the NPA in Mindanao still runs to thousands. They are organized in platoon and squad formations. Hundreds were recruited to the people�s army in the previous year, proof that the masses provide fertile source of Red fighters.

We have also maintained contact and friendly relations with a good number of CAFGUs and individual members of the AFP and the PNP who sympathize with our causes. They secretly provide various forms of support to the NPA.

All of these gains demonstrate the ever-expanding influence of the NPA. These show that the NPA is leading towards the path of victory. We are now girding towards the middle substage of the strategic defensive stage of the people�s war.

The Enemy�s weakness

As a reaction to our gains and as dictated by U.S. Imperialism, the Macapagal-Arroyo regime and the fascist AFP-PNP have intensified its campaigns of suppression against the NPA and the whole revolutionary movement. More AFP battalions have been positioned in many of our guerrilla fronts. Massive military operations have escalated, especially in areas where our forces are strong and in areas targeted for the expansion of large corporations owned by the imperialists and big bourgeois compradors in order to extract the island�s natural resources and wealth.

Despite the superiority of the AFP-PNP in terms of number and weaponry, the NPA remains undefeated. The NPA carries a just cause and has the broad support of the Filipino people; in contrast, the AFP-PNP is saddled with basic contradictions that it cannot resolve by itself. The number and the technical superiority of the AFP are rendered inutile because its policies and actions are anti-people. The AFP will surely suffer from a well-rounded defeat in the long run.

The AFP-PNP cannot overpower the NPA as the latter launches guerrilla war in the vast countrysides. On occasions where the enemy concentrates large number of troops in certain areas, it leaves out wide areas where guerrilla units are given ample opportunities for its work. On occasions where the enemy troops disperse to cover wider areas, they become easy targets for the NPA�s tactical offensives. The enemy is thrown in disarray as it is the NPA which determines when and where the battles will occur.

Apart from the NPA, the AFP-PNP is also confronted with other Moro forces that carry other political lines but are fighting against the present reactionary government of the Philippines. Enemy forces are therefore dispersed.

The AFP-PNP is embroiled with internal bickerings as a result of the fierce rivalry among high ranking officials engaged in embezzling AFP-PNP funds and in coddling each of their criminal syndicates. Many ordinary soldiers and lower-rank officials harbor bitter resentment towards their superiors. They are witness to the corruption of their officials who live in lavish mansions and have become billionaires while they suffer as lowly pawns in the frontlines of a war that only serves to protect the present rotten system. More often, they are cheated of their basic rations and other benefits due them. The military supplies are often diverted for under-the-table transactions.

Factions abound in the AFP-PNP and each favoring and/or collaborating with corresponding political parties in the ruling class. These factions are not consolidated. There are also rivalries among and between the various services of the AFP-PNP, further weakening cooperation among its own troops.

The Direction of Our Warfare

Under these conditions, the AFP and PNP troops are weak and, thus, can be overwhelmed by the NPA. The enemy will certainly suffer from a strategic defeat in the future. However, the guerilla units seriously attend to tactical situations since these are still small and inferior compared to the enemy troops. It is systematizing its intelligence work on the enemy�s situation and maneuvers. The guerilla units are concentrating superior forces in attacking enemy troops to easily overcome them. The guerilla units launch offensives where winning is a certainty. It also continues to broaden and deepen its mass base to thwart the enemy and render it blind and deaf to the situation and actions of the guerilla units.

In the succeeding years of the guerilla war, the NPA will avail of the increasingly favorable conditions in the country and in the whole world to pursue and intensify the protracted people�s war.