The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) ordered all units of the New People’s Army (NPA) to not lower their defenses during the holidays amid relentless attacks against civilians and intense combat operations. The CPP also authorized the NPA to mount tactical offensives against “isolated, weak and tired units” of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP). The Party said these must aim to punish the AFP and PNP’s crimes against the people.

In its declaration, the CPP leadership directed “the New People’s Army (NPA) through its National Operational Command (NOC) and Regional and Subregional Operational Commands (ROCs and SROCs), to actively fight and frustrate the AFP’s campaign of armed suppression.”

The Party noted that there is absolutely no reason for it to declare a ceasefire this holidays as relentless attacks and brutalities of the AFP and PNP continue. “It is the duty of the NPA to come to the people’s armed defense, even during these holidays, and even as we mourn the recent passing of our beloved Ka Jose Ma. Sison” it said.

The CPP recorded a total of 47,017 victims of human rights violations in less than six months of Marcos Jr in power. With the counterinsurgency as its central policy, its fascist butchers killed not less than 45 individuals.

From July 1 up to December 10, there have been up to three victims of torture and one abduction every week on average. Everyday, 126 people have fallen victim to harassment, threats and intimidation. More than 37,000 were forcefully evacuated and dislocated due to intense militarization of their communities.

According to the CPP Central Committee, the NPA must give concentrated expression to the people’s outrage against the enemy and serve to strengthen their determination to fight back.

Combat troops of the AFP continue to be deployed to communities of peasants and national minorities. The AFP subjects civilians “suspected of supporting the New People’s Army” to brutal suppression, according to the CPP.

It noted how hundreds of villages are placed under military control (hamlet) where people are restricted even when they buy rice or work in their fields, where soldiers raid homes, unjustly arrest, torture and willfully kill people, drop bombs, fire rockets, and shell communities, farms and forests, and force civilians to pose as “surrenderees.”

All these violations happen, according to the CPP, amid the state’s bid to “crush” and “deal the final blow” against the revolutionary movement. Victims include children who are killed in massacres and indiscriminate firing, and kidnapped and taken hostage for merely being children of suspected revolutionaries. (CPP Information Bureau)