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| New People's Army | |
|---|---|
| Bagong Hukbong Bayan | |
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| Founders | |
| Leader | Vacant |
| Dates of operation | 1969–present[1]: 96 |
| Split to |
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| Motives |
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| Active regions | No guerrilla fronts left (according to the Philippine government)[2] Operates in 110 guerrilla fronts across 73 provinces in the Philippines (CPP claim, 2018)[3][non-primary source needed] |
| Ideology | Communism Marxism–Leninism–Maoism National Democracy |
| Political position | Far-left |
| Status | Active |
| Size | |
| Part of | |
| Allies | |
| Opponents |
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| Battles and wars | Communist armed conflicts in the Philippines New People's Army rebellion Philippine drug war |
| Designated as a terrorist group by | |
| Website | philippinerevolution |
Preceded by Hukbalahap | |
| Part ofa series on |
| Communist parties |
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TheNew People's Army (Filipino:Bagong Hukbong Bayan;abbreviatedNPA orBHB) is the armed wing of theCommunist Party of the Philippines (CPP).[15]: 119 It acts as the CPP's principal organization, aiming to consolidate political power from what it sees as the present "bourgeois reactionary puppet government" and to aid in the "people's democratic revolution".[15]: 119 Founded on March 29, 1969,[1]: 96 by the collaboration ofJose Maria Sison and former members of theHukbalahap led byBernabe Buscayno, the NPA has since waged aguerrilla war based on theMaoist strategy ofprotracted people's war.[16] The NPA is one of the key figures in the ongoingcommunist rebellion in the Philippines, the longestongoing conflict in the country.
The NPA operates and is based primarily in the Philippine countryside,[3] where the CPP alleges it has established itself in 73 out of the country's 81 provinces, across over 110 guerrilla fronts.[3][non-primary source needed] In guerrilla zones where the NPA has entrenched itself, the CPP–NPA has established a People's Democratic Government (Gobyernong Bayan), which operates independently of the Philippine government. Within these zones, income taxes which would nominally go to the government treasury instead go to the NPA, which they use to fund community services.[17]
The NPA, as represented by theNational Democratic Front of the Philippines, is a party to ongoing peace talks between the People's Democratic Government and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines. Peace negotiations have reached an impasse, with theRodrigo Duterte administration unilaterally announcing the termination of peace talks in 2019.[18] Negotiations between the GRP and the NDFP stalled on signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms (CASER),[19] and the issue of localized peace talks between individual units of the NPA.[20]
TheOffice of the President of the Philippines designated the NPA as a terrorist group, along with the CPP.[9][10] TheUnited States[11] and theEuropean Union[12] have designated the CPP–NPA as "foreign terrorist organizations" in 2002 and 2005, respectively. Japan'sPublic Security Intelligence Agency designated the NPA as a "major international terrorist organization" (主な国際テロ組織).[13]
The New People's Army was established on March 29, 1969, following the split of the old Communist Party (Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas-1930) intoLava and Guerrero factions. The 1960s saw a resurgence in radical ideology, following the establishment ofKabataang Makabayan and the emerging popularity ofMao Zedong Thought as an advancement of ideologicalMarxism-Leninism. In 1966, Jose Maria Sison, under thenom de guerreAmado Guerrero, wroteRectify Errors and Rebuild the Party!, a treatise which criticized the old Lavaite leadership and emphasized the need to follow Mao Zedong Thought to foster re-establishment.[21] The conflict continued until December 26, 1968, when the Communist Party of the Philippines was formally re-established along Maoist lines, and the entire issue was termed theFirst Great Rectification Movement.
After re-establishing the CPP, Guerrero set about to establishing the People's Army. KM cadres in Tarlac had contacted Guerrero and linked him with Bernabe Buscayno, a former member of the olderHukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan. Relations were established and the New People's Army was formally founded on March 29, in continuity with the previous Hukbalahap.[22][non-primary source needed] At the time the NPA only had 60 armed fighters.[23]
The NPA was immediately tasked with the role of implementing the CPP's program for a People's Democratic Revolution. In theDeclaration of the New People's Army, Amado Guerrero outlined the following as its main tasks:[1]: 113–117
The NPA quickly spread alongside organizational work of the CPP. By 1972, it had established 735 barrio organizing committees and 60 barrio organizing committees, governing an estimated 400,000 people all over the country.[24] The CPP used the NPA to establish barrio organizing and revolutionary committees, which served as instruments in administering the people's revolutionary government. Barrio organizing committees were established to lower land rent, eliminate usury, and ensure the "annihilation of enemy troops and the elimination of landlord despots, enemy spies, and such bad elements as cattle rustlers, extortionists, robbers, murderers, arsonists, and the like."[24] Once established, barrio revolutionary committees replaced the BOC to formally establish the area as a stronghold of the revolutionary government. The NPA at the time had 72 squads of 800 regulars armed with weapons.
Over the next decade, the NPA expanded in response toFerdinand Marcos and the declaration ofmartial law in the Philippines. The CPP and the NPA were successfully able to establish themselves in the countryside, reaching a mass base of over one million people, with 1,000 fighters armed with high-powered rifles by 1977[23] By 1981, the NPA began engaging in tactical offensives involving company-sized units emerged, particularly in the Southern Mindanao region. By 1983, the NPA fielded 5,000 high-powered rifles. By 1988, it had 10,000 high-powered rifles, with 7,000 inferior firearms. It operated in 60 guerrilla fronts across 63 provinces of the Philippines.[23]
The momentum gained in the 1980s was also given to multiple setbacks. Changes in strategy and internal conflicts within the CPP resulted in ideological, political, and organizational losses for the CPP–NPA–NDF. The CPP devised a plan called a "strategic counteroffensive" (SCO) with the aim of "leaping over" to a higher stage of armed revolution and quickly win the revolution. The SCO program led to "regularization" of units, urban partisan actions, peasant uprisings, and an insurrectionist concept of "seizing opportunities".[23]
From 1981, the NPA enjoyed strategic gains in Mindanao and was able to consolidate its forces there. However, the Mindanao Commission adopted a strategy of designating areas as Red (where military struggle was applicable) or White (where political struggle and insurrection was applicable) along with the SCO program.[25]
Problems in discipline also emerged during this time, as well as deterioration of the NPA's ability to conduct mass work. These ideological and organizational shortcomings, coupled with theCorazon Aquino administration's counter-insurgency program,Oplan Lambat Bitag, managed to severely harm the NPA and the CPP as a whole.[25][26]: 144
In 1989, the NPA assassinatedU.S. ArmyColonelJames "Nick" Rowe, founder of the U.S. ArmySurvival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) course. Colonel Rowe was part of a military assistance program to the Philippine Army. The NPA asserts that this made him a legitimate military target.[27][28]
By 1991, the CPP central committee had assessed the mistakes of the previous decade and carried out theSecond Great Rectification Movement from 1992 until declaring a success in 1998. The Second Great Rectification Movement, however, saw splits in the CPP ranks, with rejectionists such asFilemon Lagman,Romulo Kintanar,Etta Rosales, and others leaving the CPP and forming their own groups based on ideological differences. TheAlex Boncayao Brigade, notorious for its partisan activities, left the CPP with Lagman and formed theRevolutionary Proletarian Army.
In 1998, the GRP and NDFP signed the Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CAHRIHL), which establishes rules of engagement for both parties in accordance to international rules of war.[29] The NPA, as a signatory to CAHIRHL, is bound to international agreements stated in theGeneva Convention and thus follows rules set for prisoners of war,[30] command-detonated explosives,[31] and similar rules of engagement.
Since then, rejectionists have been met with reprisals. Lagman was ambushed in theUniversity of the Philippines in 2001 by gunmen and slain.[32] The NPA has admitted to killing Kintanar in 2003.[33] Other rejectionists, like Rosales andWalden Bello continue as members of thesocial-democraticAkbayan party. Ricardo Reyes is active in local politics, having last attempted to secure the mayoralty ofPasig in 2010.
The CPP declared the Second Great Rectification Movement as having been "conclusively won" in 1998. Since then, it has re-affirmed that the CPP is in absolute command of the NPA, outlining that its most pressing task is to "defeat and destroy the US-created and US-supported reactionaryArmed Forces of the Philippines."[34]
Since then, it has continued to wage a protracted people's war through the use ofguerrilla tactics, while steadily expanding. In 2002, PresidentGloria Macapagal Arroyo requested for the United States Department of State to declare the CPP-NPA as a foreign terrorist group, which was granted on August 2.[11] This was in line with her counter-insurgency program,Oplan Bantay Laya, which aimed to end the conflict between the AFP and the NPA. In 2005, theEuropean UnionCommon Foreign and Security Policy included the NPA as a terrorist group.[12] Despite these efforts, the NPA has declaredOplan Bantay Laya I a "failure", citing that it did not lose a single guerrilla front despite the AFP's efforts of concentrating its forces in 300 to 600 barrios at any given time.[35]
In 2005, the NPA reported that its strength had surpassed its previous peak in 2005. Arroyo, at this time, had replaced OBL1 withOplan Bantay Laya 2, which aimed at "ending the revolutionary movement by 2010".[35] OBL2, along with what the CPP identified as "conservatism" in the ranks, led to a decline in NPA strength until 2009.[36][non-primary source needed]
During the administration ofBenigno Aquino III, OBL2 was replaced byOplan Bayanihan, which had a more "people-centered" approach compared to OBL's military-heavy tactics.[37] NPA membership, at this time, steadily rose. By 2017, NPA strength had surpassed the previous 2005 peak by 3%.[36][non-primary source needed]
As of 2018, its strength is tallied at greater than the 5,600 rifles recorded in the CPP's 1985 plenum.[3][non-primary source needed] The Central Committee has stated in its 2017 Congress that it has a five-year plan with aims to "carry forward the antifascist, antifeudal and anti-imperialist movement and overthrow the tyrannical US-Duterte regime, and bring the protracted people's war to the advanced phase of the strategic defensive, in order to reach the threshold of the strategic stalemate".[36][non-primary source needed] The five-year plan:
The CPP five-year plan emphasizes the need to combat conservatism in the NPA ranks, the importance of mass-work in building and strengthening Party groups, and the intensification of guerrilla warfare against enemy targets.
The NPA has a long record of attacking mining corporations and logging companies which they accuse of harming the forests of the Philippines. In 2011 in revenge for the murder of anti-mining activistRabenio Sungit, the NPA attacked three mines in Mindanao, causing 190 million dollars in damages.[38] Some corporations willing to pay NPA taxes for local social programs are allowed to continue operating within NPA territory, those who do not are often attacked by the NPA who burn their equipment.[39]
The NPA, being the primary organization of the CPP, follows a theoretical ideology ofMarxism-Leninism-Maoism.[15]: 119 It regards the Philippines as a semi-colonial, semi-feudal state where political and economic power is concentrated on a local class oflandlords andcompradorbourgeoisie, aided by foreignimperialists, chief of which is United States imperialism. The CPP regards atwo-stage revolution of People's Democratic Revolution followed by socialist reconstruction as the path to achievesocialism and wrest control away from the bourgeois.[16]
The NPA regards itself as waging a revolution ultimately stemming from the "unfinished" revolution of theKatipunan, calling itself a revolution of the "new type"; whereas the Katipunan waged a "bourgeois democratic revolution of the old type, the NPA is waging a "proletarian socialist revolution" in the same vein as theOctober Revolution in Russia.[16]
The CPP-NPA regards three things as central to waging revolution: armed struggle, agrarian revolution, and the building of mass-bases in the countryside. The NPA, aside from being a military force, also puts emphasis in carrying out land reform and organizational work to ensure that villages become bases of the people's democratic government.[15]: 120
The CPP regards armed struggle as a necessary component ofrevolution coinciding with the Party's organizational work. The NPA, as the central agent of armed struggle, serves to achieve its central task of "destroying and dismantling the rule of the enemy and taking their political power".[16] In waging armed revolution, the NPA follows the strategic line of protracted people's war by "encircling the cities from the countryside until conditions are ripe for seizing the cities through a strategic offensive".[43]: 48 [non-primary source needed]
The NPA identifies three stages in waging armed struggle: strategic defensive, strategic stalemate, and strategic offensive.[15]: 120–1 It regards itself as yet unable to conduct symmetric warfare in the urban centers and thus regards the people's war as being in a stage of strategic defensive moving to a stage of strategic stalemate.[43]: 50 During the stage of strategic defensive, the NPA "maintains the initiative in tactical offensives against the strategic military advantage of the enemy", making use of guerrilla tactics to attack targets and defend guerrilla zones, while armed partisans perform special roles in the cities.[15]: 121 The second stage is strategic stalemate, where fighting force is more or less equal, while the last stage is that of strategic offensive, where the NPA has developed its strength capable of assaulting military camps and cities.
The NPA has explicitly allowed the recruitment of sexual and gender minorities. Many queer Filipinos join the NPA due to the lack ofLGBT rights in the Philippines, and they believe that queer liberation can only be achieved through a communist revolution. The CPP has recognized "the right to form samesex relationships and changing one's gender" since 1992.[44] Kaira Zoe Alburo writes that gay NPA recruits challenge the concept of a hegemonic, "heterosexualized" masculinity in the army in that by enlisting, they create a "new man" who exists outside of the heterosexual ideal of a "real man patterned on being strong, aggressive, and skilled in the art of war".[45]
Same-gender marriage is permitted by the NPA. In 1998, the CPP released the documentOn Proletarian Relationship of the Sexes, which outlined how romantic relationships and marriages should work under the army. The document also covered same-gender relationships, and with its implementation, the queer rights of sexual and gender minorities in the army became more recognized.[44] In 2005, the NPA conducted the first recorded gay marriage in the history of the Philippines.[45]
The former Filipino president Duterte mocked the NPA's acceptance of LGBT members, erroneously claiming that '40 percent' of NPA members are gay.[46] Duterte also claimed that NPA guerrillas once attempted to sexually seduce his son.[47] NPA co-founder Jose Maria Sison confirmed that the NPA openly accepted LGBT people and called Duterte's claims "unbelievable".[48]
The Philippine Army had apprehended Eduardo Quitoriano in 1994, who was a NPA liaison officer to theJapanese Red Army and involved in a money laundering case in Switzerland.[49]
It is reported that the NPA had supported the Naxalites (of India) during theNaxalite–Maoist insurgency by providing training and technical support.[50]
The CPP-NPA received large-scale support, in the form of arms, $7 million and logistical support, fromthe Gaddafi government in Libya according to a US Secretary of State.[51][52]
At the time of its inception,Government of the Philippines automatically outlawed the NPA (along with the CPP) through the Anti-Subversion Act of 1957 which had branded thePartido Komunista ng Pilipinas-1930 (PKP) and theHukbalahap as an "organized conspiracy". As splinter groups which had roots to the PKP, the ban extended to the CPP-NPA.[53]
The Anti-Subversion Act of 1957 was repealed by President Fidel Ramos in October 1992, decriminalizing membership in the NPA and CPP.[54][55]
In December 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte declared the NPA along with the CPP as terrorist organizations.[9][10] In agreement were the European Union,[12] New Zealand and the United States.[14]
The Anti-Terror Council of the Philippines designated CPP-NPA as a terrorist organization in the Philippines on December 9, 2020.[56]
The Manila Regional Trial Court has junked a proscription case by the Department of Justice seeking to designate the CPP-NPA as a terrorist organization on September 22, 2022.[57] The court concluded that the constitution and program of the CPP-NPA, including its justification for armed struggle, fall under "rebellion" and do not constitute the legal definition of "terrorism".
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