Branches and committees of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), New People’s Army (NPA) units and the entire revolutionary movement in Masbate are striving to carry out the rectification movement initiated by the Central Committee in December 2023. Assessments and studies are in full swing since the first quarter of the year.

Study movement

As an initial step, the NPA and the masses held various consolidation and study meetings to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the Party and the NPA. They also distributed pamphlets and posted as many as 1,000 streamers in many parts of the province. They took the opportunity to inform the masses and comrades about the call for the rectification movement.

On the anniversary of the Party and the Army, guerrilla fronts reported that eight joint cultural programs and mass meetings were held attended approximately by 300 people. They presented various cultural performances such as songs, dances and plays, that told the history of the revolutionary movement in the province.

Various local Party branches, mass organizations and Army units held studies on the Central Committee’s statement on the 55th anniversary of the Party. Several front committees also studied the Party’s statement on the 55th anniversary of the NPA. The campaign to renew pledges among Party branches accompanied this activity. Party units and committees are also reviewing the constitution.

Party committees at various levels also launched assessment meetings to include the rectification movement in their programs and action plans. These meetings included the study of important documents summarizing the Party’s experience in the past year and other documents relevant to the experience in the province.

Meanwhile, one front completed a batch of Basic Party Course this quarter.

Identifying errors and rectification

In line with the call of the Central Committee, various Party committees in the province sincerely identified the shortcomings of the movement in leading the revolutionary struggle of the Masbatenyos. Every committee and every Army command candidly assessed the internal weaknesses in various areas of work.

They outlined the initial summing-up of revolutionary work. They also launched the campaign to carry out a comprehensive social investigation and class analysis.

Front units of the people’s army are also correcting the conduct of their maneuvers. The aim is to avoid unnecessary and defensive battles. Provincial units have also started expanding into areas they had not reached before. Comrades are slowly making their presence felt again among the masses in places where the people’s army had not been for a long time.

On the island of Ticao, helping the masses in production became part of the Red army’s methods. The masses are pleased that comrades help them finish their copra production.

The revolutionary movement in the province now faces the challenge of intensifying the armed struggle to strengthen the Army and the mass movement. The Party committee called on all units of the Army to launch sustained tactical offensives to weaken and frustrate the reign of terror of the armed forces of the US-Marcos regimes.

The committee also specifically emphasized the need to launch anti-feudal struggles and livelihood campaigns as foundation for strengthening the Masbatenyos mass movement.

The revolutionary movement emerged in Masbate in 1983 with the arrival of three comrades armed only with two weak rifles. In the following few decades, the Masbatenyo masses proved that they could truly rely on the people’s army and are their ally in reclaiming their land and defending their democratic rights.