Following a series of encounters with the New People’s Army, the tired, defeated, and low-morale soldiers and junior officers of the 203rd Infantry Brigade in Oriental Mindoro were visited by none other than the general of the mercenary Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Gen. Romeo Brawner. Here, Brawner boastfully claimed that the New People’s Army will “finally end” their armed struggle with the signing of a framework agreement between the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).

This claim by Gen. Brawner is nothing but hot air, and was made amidst series of defeats suffered by the fascist AFP in the hands of the NPA. The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) reported several recent clashes between the NPA and mercenary AFP in the provinces of Mindoro Occidental, Quezon, Aurora, Albay, Northern Samar, Capiz, Lanao del Norte, and Bukidnon. The fascists and mercenaries lost at least nine soldiers in these clashes, including five killed in combat in Occidental Mindoro.

Nothing has changed with the basic character of the reactionary state—the US-Marcos Jr regime and its fascist AFP serves the interest of the corrupt bureaucrats, corporate plunderers, big land-grabbers, human rights violators, and foreign capitalists. Big energy projects such as dams, solar and wind power plants have decimated the environment and displaced indigenous peoples, fisherfolk, and peasants from their lands and communities. The same AFP, alongside the Philippine National Police (PNP), is being used to demolish the houses of the urban and rural poor to pave the way for reclamation and energy projects of big compradors like Ayala, Aboitiz, Consunji, Razon, and Ramon Ang.

In spite of the hundreds of billions of pesos that have been squandered by the reactionary regime in its anti-people, anti-environment counterinsurgency effort, it is still losing the war for the hearts and minds of the people. Even the intensification of war and militarization by the fascists in the countryside has failed to dampen the spirit and regrowth of the well-loved NPA. Since the current Rectification Movement was initiated by the CPP in 2023, several NPA fronts have reported an increase of their membership, mass base, and capability to launch tactical offensives against the fascist and mercenary troops of the AFP.

The peace agreement of the Marcos Jr government being hyped by Gen. Brawner is nothing but deception and smoke to fool the people to abandon the path of revolution. The peace agreement’s primary intention is for the revolutionary movement and the NPA to “demobilize, disarm, and reintegrate” into the current rotten system. The Philippine revolution will never enter into peace negotiations under these terms of clear capitulation.

No amount of deception or even brutality by the fascist AFP and the Marcos Jr regime will make the masses abandon their people’s army. The dream of the peasant and indigenous peoples to own their lands and territories; the struggle of the workers for decent living and job security; the demand of the youth for free and quality education for all; the advocacy of the environmentalists for a healthy and balanced ecology; and the aspiration of the people for national industrialization lie primarily in the development and victory of the people’s war in the country.

The people’s war is just and necessary to resolve the root causes of oppression and exploitation and attain genuine peace in the country.

The revolutionary scientists and engineers of the Liga ng Agham para sa Bayan continue to answer the call to support and join the New People’s Army in the countryside to serve the toiling masses and advance the new democratic revolution through protracted people’s war.

Isulong ang digmang bayan para makamit ang tunay na kapayapaan!