The Marcos regime drew endless ridicule for its “new” peace plan which the National Security Council made public in the last week of April. The regime formally endorsed the National Plan for Unity, Peace and Development (NAP-UPD) when it issued Memorandum Circular No. 83 on May 2.

As the NAP-UPD propagated, the regime and the NTF-Elcac boasted they would completely defeat the armed movement by the end of the year after dismantling the “last standing front” which they claimed was in Camarines Sur.

According to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), Marcos and his officials are fooling only themselves by saying the revolutionary movement can finally be defeated. The continuing deployment of military combat battalions against New People’s Army units nationwide belies this claim.

The CPP ridicules the idea of achieving peace amid tyranny and harm to the people. Soldiers continue to lord over hundreds of farming and indigenous communities under the guise of “community support.” In these communities claimed to be “insurgency-free,” people’s rights are suppressed and abuses abound.

No peace can be achieved with the continued imprisonment of consultants for peace negotiations aimed at resolving the roots of armed conflict, according to the CPP. The regime only seeks to force Red fighters to surrender, betray their revolutionary struggle, and leave the Filipino people defenseless against the brutal and violent state machinery.

As long as the roots of armed conflict remain unrecognized, there can be no peace, according to the CPP.

Progressive organizations also ridiculed the NAP-UPD, calling it “recycled.”

According to Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and the National Union of People’s Lawyers, the NAP-UPD retains the old repressive methods for “achieving peace.” This is clear in designating the NTF-Elcac as the program’s main executor, in line with the “whole-of-nation” approach. They say the NAP-UPD merely gave a new face to the already tried and failed counterinsurgency strategy.

The groups are aware that the NAP-UPD’s real target are the open mass organizations of workers, peasants, and other oppressed people, to silence their resistance against the reactionary government. The plan to further escalate political repression against democratic sectors is clear, from denying them democratic space in schools, workplaces, and even parliament. The intention to use repressive laws like the Anti-Terrorism Law and Anti-Terrorist Financing Law to “shut off” the alleged “flow” of finance and support for the armed revolution is also clear. Civilian are maliciously linked to the armed movement to serve as pretext to harass, illegally arrest and detain, forcibly disappear, and even kill them.