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FFPS: In his recent State of the Nation Address, President Marcos Jr. very publicly stated that there are “no more guerrilla groups” in the Philippines. Can you tell us what’s actually the situation the ground, what are some of the set backs and advances of the movements in this context of Third Rectification Movement?

Marcos” declaration that there are “no more guerrilla groups” in the Philippines is a big lie. Marcos made the declaration to satisfy his US imperialist masters who has been pouring large amounts of funds to AFP counterinsurgency operations over the last few years, in the vain hope that it can completely crush the New People’s Army, so that they can have the puppet AFP give full attention to supporting the US war plans in the Indo-Pacific.

Marcos” “no more guerrillas” declaration, however, backfired. In the two months following the statement, specifically August and September, there have been at least 31 armed encounters between the AFP and the NPA. (See the attached map). This is based on both NPA field reports and statements issued by the AFP. At least 13 AFP soldiers were killed-in-action, with scores more wounded in action during these armed incidents. On the other hand, 16 Red fighters of the NPA were martyred, including the killing of two NPA hors de combat, and four killed in an aerial bomb attack.

These armed encounters clearly belie Marcos” claims that there are no more guerrilla groups in the Philippines. In fact, the AFP higher echelon has ordered combat battalions of the AFP to intensify counter-guerrilla operations in the hope of encircling and engaging the NPA in decisive battles. The AFP has concentrated 4–5 battalions against an NPA platoon or squads. They have carried out relentless operations, almost without rest periods, in the hope of tiring the NPA.

Majority of the NPA units have succeeded in keeping themselves below the enemy’s radar through guerilla secrecy and military discipline. Some NPA units, however, have been detected and subjected to the enemy’s encirclement operations. In response, these NPA units have carried out out guerrilla counter-maneuvers. With the support of the local peasant masses, they navigate through the narrow corridors between enemy columns, or mount tactical offensives to break the enemy’s encirclement.

To ensure success in overcoming the enemy’s offensives, units of the NPA are expanding and consolidating their mass base. They are opening brand new areas to further enlarge the mass base of the people’s army, as well as recovering old base areas, which were neglected due to past errors of self-constriction, conservatism and prolonged mountain basing. The masses are happy to see again their Red fighters.

Under the leadership of the Party, the NPA continues to persevere in waging guerrilla war against the fascist armed forces, despite experiencing setbacks over the past years. Guided by the rectification movement, NPA units have been reorganized and redeployed in order to prioritize mass work and rebuild its mass base, which stagnated due to previous weaknesses, and mount tactical offensives against the weak and isolated units of the enemy. Despite the continuing all-out offensives of the enemy, the NPA have made initial successes in preserving its forces and re-expanding its areas of operation. We expect bigger achievements in the coming years.

FFPS: The current US-backed counter-insurgency operations use a wide range of tactics to try & confuse people: black propaganda, fake news, troll farms, historical revisionism… What are their effects on the people, and how is the movement fighting against them?

You are right to point out that the reactionary fascist state employs the whole range of tactics in waging its counterrevolutionary war. It combines psychological warfare and intelligence operations with its combat operations.

The AFP pours hundreds of millions of pesos to establish, train and fund psywar operations at every level of command from company up to area commands. They aim to “control the information space” in order to shape or manipulate public perception and opinion. They impose news blackouts, prevent independent access to information sources, especially in rural areas, bribe or “befriend” media outlets and their reporters, and so on. They have formed special units under their “civil-military relations” that specialize on psywar and black propaganda. They have conducted special trainings on using social media for information warfare. Just a few days ago, the AFP prevented human rights workers, defenders of the environment and various other groups from conducting fact finding missions in the Mindoro island, Rizal province and other parts of the country.

Over the past years, the AFP has heightened its psychological warfare operations to project an image of overwhelming military superiority and create the appearance of victory over the New People’s Army (NPA). The goal is to strike fear among the peasant masses, paralyze their resistance and stop them from supporting the revolutionary armed struggle.

The main target of the AFP’s psywar operations are the people, especially the peasant masses and indigenous peoples in the rural villages. The AFP has placed thousands of villages under martial law rule. They have subjected to brutal tactics of repression hundreds of thousands of people in rural communities which they suspect of supporting the guerrilla fighters. People are subjected to endless harassment to force them to “cooperate” with the military, compel them to “clear their name,” and “surrender” under pain of facing criminal charges and imprisonment. They face the military’s threats of extrajudicial killing to put pressure on their sons or daughters who are with the NPA to surrender and give up the armed resistance.

They try to present a glossy image of the AFP in order to obscure the widespread abuse and violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed in the course of its brutal war of suppression. At the same time, the Philippine military is aggressively promoting anti-China propaganda to justify its subservience to the US imperialists, and its collusion with the increased presence of US troops in the Philippines, the prepositioning of US war equipment, and non-stop war preparations and provocations.

FFPS: For those who support the Filipino people’s aspirations for a just and lasting peace, what are the ways in which we can be useful in exposing these types of counter-revolutionary propaganda?

We call on friends and supporters of the Filipino people’s struggle for a just and lasting peace to heighten their awareness and help expose the psywar operations and political repression of the Marcos regime and its armed forces. We urge you to monitor closely the human rights situation in the Philippines, and expose all violations before the international community.

You can form focus groups or networks that will give specific attention to exposing the siuation in provinces or areas where political repression is particularly grave, such as in Mindoro, Rizal, Northern Samar, Negros island, the Surigao at Agusan provinces in the Caraga region, Bukidnon, the Davao region provinces, Lanao provinces, and many other places in practically all over the country. You can establish online linkages with local organizations and communities. You can expose how the socioeconomic conditions of the people are aggravated by military repression, as well as by “development projects” (including mining operations, plantations, “renewable energy” and so on) that grab their land.

Exposing the situation before the international community can help strengthen the struggle of local communities who are under military rule. You can mount information campaigns and put pressure on foreign governments to stop supporting the Marcos regime in its war against the people.

FFPS: The broad use by the puppet regime and the AFP of communication strategies on social media to spread black propaganda seems to have really intensified in the recent years. Can you tell us more about that, and how does the revolutionary movement combat that?

As explained above, the recent years have seen a significant escalation in the use of social media by the AFP and other government entities to disseminate fascist propaganda. This is particularly pernicious as it takes advantage of the growing reliance among Filipinos on social media platforms for news and information.

The AFP has integrated social media into its psywar strategies, leveraging online platforms with vast audiences to manipulate public perception and undermine dissent with threats of armed reprisal. Under various “civil-military operations” units, specialized teams have been established to manage online activities, equipped with the necessary tools and training to conduct online psywar operations effectively. The aim is to turn the entire armed forces into a troll army. Its personnel are incentivized to engage in online activities by “liking” and “sharing” posts that align with fascist narratives. Additionally, they receive financial compensation for copy-pasting comments to promote specific viewpoints.

The revolutionary movement actively combats the AFP’s online psywar operations through a variety of strategies, underscoring the need to promote and disseminate accurate news and information to counteract lies and fascist propaganda. One significant challenge arises from the fact that major social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube categorize the revolutionary forces in the Philippines as “dangerous organizations and individuals,” which leads to stringent censorship of revolutionary content, especially promoting the just cause of the people’s armed resistance. There are also algorithms that are apparently engineered to restricts the visibility of revolutionary messages, which further contributes to the misinformation landscape dominated by fascist propaganda.

The revolutionary movement responds to this online censorship by adopting flexible and innovative methods to work around the restrictions and help ensure that its perspectives make it into these platforms. This includes leveraging alternative accounts and creating engaging content that broader audiences can promote. We still have to maximize other platforms such as Telegram or Discord.

FFPS: A new aspect of the counterinsurgency operations are the use of new warfare technologies, such as cyber warfare, drones, or AI. How are the revolutionary armed to combat these?

To paraphrase Mao Zedong, weapons, equipment, technologies and so on are important in warfare, but what is more important are the people. Over the past years, the reactionary armed forces, with the support of the US imperialists, have ramped up the use of drones for thermal, optical and electronic surveillance, combined with GPS trackers of various types, mini-cameras, jet fighters, attack and utility helicopters, 500-lb bombs, artillery, exhibiting their military superiority.

Indeed, utilizing advanced equipment and overwhelming military force, they have inflicted significant damage against the people’s army, especially against units of the NPA that are encamped in mountain base for prolonged periods of time. However, these have also resulted in the dependence of AFP troops on technology and advanced equipment, which do not always work in harsh conditions of guerrilla and counterguerrila warfare.

The NPA has steadily adapted tactics and measures to prevent the enemy from effectively using these advanced equipment against its guerrilla fighters, including detection of GPS trackers which the AFP try to dissmeble and smuggle into NPA units. Guerrilla fighters have adapted security protocols to counter the enemy’s thermal, optical and electronic surveillance and maintain secrecy crucial to guerrilla operations. These measures, mostly passive, can be further strengthened with the use of counterintelligence equipment, which the NPA hopes to acquire from friends and other sources.

In the final analysis, however, it is the support and participation of the people that is the most critical factor that will determine the final outcome of the war. Any superiority in terms of weapons and technology possessed by the enemy becomes inconsequential in the face of the popular participation of the broad masses in guerrilla warfare. Through their militia and self-defense units, the peasant masses can effectively engage in guerrilla warfare alongside the guerrilla units of the NPA.

Even the massive financial and military backing provided by the US imperialists to the AFP, cannot compare to the people’s determination to fight by all means possible to end the oppressive and exploitative semicolonial and semifeudal system. The broad masses of the people are the wellspring that provide the people’s army an endless stream of fighters who possess a deep sense of commitment and determination to fight and attain victory.