AS WITH most things obsolete and irrelevant, the end inevitably happens.
Indeed, it does appear that this more than 50 years of insurgency problem is going to end much sooner than later.
From all indications, it would seem that this CPP/NPA/NDF insurgency which started during the watch of the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. – with the sole purpose of toppling him down – would meet its final demise during the watch of his son and namesake, current President Bongbong Marcos. Talk about an irony of history.
Of course, we cannot say that the CPP/NPA/NDF would be totally wiped out. But it would be reduced to a totally insignificant status. For sure there would be some stragglers left but they would be much like armed bandits, no longer a threat to national security. They can easily be sorted out by the Philippine National Police.
Take note that the CPP/NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
The Anti-Terrorism Council also formally designated the NDF as a terrorist organization on June 23, 2021, citing it as “an integral and inseparable part” of the CPP-NPA created in April 1973.
Now, why do we say that this insurgency is coming to its demise? Let’s take a look at the scenario here in Western Visayas.
According to the commander of the Philippine Army’s 3rd Infantry (Spearhead) Division (3ID) based in Jamindan, Capiz, guerilla fronts so far dismantled were the Eastern Front in Panay and northern and southeast fronts in Negros.
Meanwhile the remaining active fronts in Panay are the central front based in the towns of Calinog, Iloilo and Tapaz, Capiz; and the southern front based in the towns of Miag-ao, Tubungan and San Joaquin, Iloilo, and Hamtic and Sibalom in Antique. These fronts, however, are weakening and as you’re reading this they would have already been further reduced to an insignificant level.
Take note that out of 68 guerilla fronts nationwide, more than 62 are already dismantled the remaining ones are severely weakened.
The insurgency has lost its mass base and local support, and if you follow the news everyday hundreds of these NPA fighters are surrendering and availing themselves of the livelihood and rehabilitation-to-integration programs of the government.
The people in the countryside have “woke up”, thanks largely to the relentless operations of the Armed Forces against these enemies of the state and the whole-of-nation approach of the NTF-ELCAC in winning the hearts and minds of the people with their barrio development programs.
With the rate of those former insurgents returning to society, what’s probably left are those aging CPP/NPA cadres who have no other life but that of an insurgent.
Here are excerpts from an article on the Sept. 14, 2022 issue of The Manila Times by Rigoberto Tiglao:
Is the CPP now headless?
Yes, it would seem so, as more and more indications are emerging, pointing to the fact that the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) hasn’t got a leader, the chairman or even a centralized command. It has degenerated into a propaganda machine, with its once feared New People’s Army consisting of small, practically bandit units roaming in a few areas in the most distant countryside.
Its official organ Ang Bayan for more than two years now hasn’t reported a new chairman to be leading the party, after the killing on March 13, 2020, of Julius Giron, whom the military claimed was the party head after Benito Tiamzon was captured in March 2014. Ang Bayan or even its allied news sites like Bulatlat have not referred to any party chairman or even just his nom de guerre.
The party appears to be in a state of confusion. The military had reported that Tiamzon had reassumed leadership of the party after Giron was killed. Then just last month, on August 22, a pump boat initially reported to have Tiamzon and his wife Wilma Austria as passengers, exploded. My sources in the Left said that reports of Tiamzon and Austria having been killed had become widespread. Such reports are certainly demoralizing to the Reds. If it is false, Ang Bayan would have screamed so. Why hasn’t it?
The Communist Party has become a party of seniors: all of its 25-man central committee are septuagenarians or will be in a few years
No second younger generation of communist leaders has emerged with the education and critical thinking at the level of the communists of the 1970s, or with the willingness to live a hard revolutionary life underground.
If that be the case, then it appears that this more than 50-year-old insurgency will soon die a natural death – old age./PN
