At least 21 individuals completed the Intermediate and Advance Party Course consecutively conducted in Southern Tagalog in May and June. This was reported in the June issue of the region’s revolutionary newspaper, Kalatas. The graduates were from Party branches in the people’s army and urban areas.

The series was launched in a guerrilla front amid an ongoing focused military operation by fascist troops of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the regional paper reported.

Launching the courses was part of the said Party committees’ consolidation efforts, after holding summings ups in compliance with the national call for a rectification movement.

Kalatas reported that the courses were held to rectify major weaknesses identified in the past, particularly the sluggish implementation of the Party’s three-level courses and other Party studies.

The Party Central Committee declared in December 2023 that the full implementation of the Party’s Three-Level Course is a part of the rectification movement. This stems from what the leadership identified as a problem with “unsustained efforts in educational work.” It directed its committees to “ensure that backlogs [in conducting studies] are eliminated.”

Before the IKP and AKP were concluded, the Party committees launched the Paaralang JMS (JMS School) to study and review the important writings of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and the CPP regarding the formation of the Party and the rectification movement.

In the pulong kapihan (meeting over coffee) after the graduation ceremony, the students identified factors which made the activity a success. These are: the determination of the committee and units, close coordination and efficient analysis and initiative of the New People’s Army’s command unit, and the unwavering support of the people.

The people’s army and the masses had to be creative in setting-up their “learning environment,” which included fruit-gathering for school snacks, adapting their “classroom” to guerilla conditions and doing regular patrols to ensure the security of the entire force.

As Ka Gemma, one of the AKP graduates declared, “The point of learning is not to have a diploma, but to translate lessons learned from the masses into practice.”