The history ofcommunist armed conflicts in the Philippines is closely related to the history ofCommunism in the Philippines, with various armed conflict linked to the armed wings of the various communist organizations that have evolved since 1930. The two largest conflicts have been theHukbalahap Rebellion of 1942–1954, and theongoing rebellion of theNew People's Army, which began in 1969 under the auspices of theCommunist Party of the Philippines (CPP). But various splinter groups have since separated from the CPP and have had a history of armed conflict with the Philippine government since then.
The Hukbalahap Rebellion was initiated by thePartido Komunista ng Pilipinas of 1930 (PKP-1930) and its armed group the Hukbalahap[1]: 44 (HMB) (Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan, or "People's Liberation Army"). They went into decline in the early 1950s and was finally put down through a series of reforms and military victories which led to the 1954 surrender of its leaderLuis Taruc.
The armed conflict of the New People's Army against the Philippine government can be traced back to March 29, 1969, whenJose Maria Sison's newly formed CPP entered an alliance with a small armed group led byBernabe Buscayno. But the conflict was still in its infancy in 1972 whenFerdinand Marcos proclaimedMartial law. The declaration and the resultinghuman rights abuses led to the radicalization of even the moderate opposition against Marcos, significantly swelling the ranks of the New People's Army.[2]: "43"
Major splits away from the Communist Party of the Philippines occurred in 1992 and 1996. A month after Marcos was ousted through the broad-based nonviolentPeople Power Revolution of February 1986, the unit led byConrado Balweg formed a splinter group known as theCordillera People's Liberation Army, whose conflict with the Philippine government formally ended with the closure of peace talks in 2011.[3] 1992 saw what the CPP refers to as theSecond Great Rectification Movement, an effort whose stated intent was to "identify, repudiate and rectify the errors ofurbaninsurrectionism, premature bigformations of theNew People's Army and anti-infiltration hysteria".[4] This resulted in the once monolithicFilipinocommunist party fragmenting into at least 13 factions during the 1990s,[5][6][7] the most notable being: the alliance that was theRevolutionary Workers' Party (RPM-P), theRevolutionary Proletarian Army (RPA), and theAlex Boncayao Brigade (ABB); the Revolutionary People's Army – Mindanao (RPA-M), and theRebolusyonaryong Hukbong Bayan (RHB, Revolutionary People's Army) of theMarxist-Leninist Party of the Philippines (MLPP).[6]
The Hukbalahap Rebellion began in 1942 when thePartido Komunista ng Pilipinas of 1930 (PKP-1930) formed an armed group called theHukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon (People's Army against the Japanese) to fight against theJapanese occupation of the Philippines during World War II. At the end of the war in 1946, the PKP-1930 reconstituted the Hukbalahap as theHukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan ("Peoples' Liberation Army"), transforming it into the party's armed wing. This conflict ended in 1954 under the presidency ofRamon Magsaysay.[1]: 44
Theongoing rebellion of theNew People's Army began in 1969 under the auspices of theCommunist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which had been formed the previous year.
This conflict was still in its infancy in 1972 whenFerdinand Marcos proclaimedMartial law, but expanded significantly as even the moderate opposition against Marcos was radicalized.[2]: "43" ThePartido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP), then allied withFerdinand Marcos, was responsible for killing more communists than the Marcos government itself due to a growing youth faction within the party called the Marxist-Leninist Group (MLG) opposing Marcos' imposition of martial law nationwide and attempting to splinter from the PKP.[8]
The CPP went through a series of setbacks and internal conflicts after the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, including the breaking away of theCordillera People's Liberation Army of former priestConrado Balweg. CPP co-founderJose Maria Sison went into exile in theNetherlands in 1987 whileBenito Tiamzon reportedly became the leader of the party upon successively acquiring the positions of chairman and secretary general in 1986 and 1987 respectively.[9]
In 1992 the CPP went through what it calls theSecond Great Rectification Movement, whose stated intent was to "identify, repudiate and rectify the errors ofurbaninsurrectionism, premature bigformations of theNew People's Army and anti-infiltration hysteria".[4] This resulted in the split of the party into "Re-affirmist" and "Rejectionist" groups, resulting in the formation of at least 13 factions during the 1990s.[5][6][7]
A month after Marcos was ousted through the broad-based nonviolentPeople Power Revolution of February 1986, the unit led by former priestConrado Balweg broke away from the New People's Army, accusing the latter of incompetence in pursuing its goals.[10] Balweg's splinter group became known as theCordillera People's Liberation Army (CPLA). The formation of the CPLA also saw the merger of theTingguian Liberation Force, a splinter group from NPA Abra to form the Cordillera organization.[10] Their stated goal was to fight for theself-determination of the people of Cordillera.[11]
The group began peace talks with the Philippine government later that year, and on September 13, 1986, the CPLA and theGovernment of the Philippines made a "sipat" (ceasefire) at Mt. Data Hotel, inBauko,Mountain Province. The agreement between the two entities was called the 1986Mount Data Peace Accord.[12][13] The conflict formally ended with the closure of peace talks in 2011.[3]
In 1992, main body of the CPP split into two factions: the reaffirmist faction led bySison and the rejectionist faction which advocated the formation of larger military units and urban insurgencies. Several smaller factions emerged from the group,[6] the most notable being theRPM/P-RPA-ABB; theMLPP-RHB, and the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa Mindanao (Revolutionary Worker's Party - Mindanao - Revolutionary Peoples' Army, RWP-M/RPA, sometimes also RPA-M).[14]
The split resulted in a weakening of the CPP-NPA, but it gradually grew again after the breakdown of peace talks in 1999,[15] the unpopularity of the Estrada administration,[16] and because of social pressures arising from theAsian Financial Crisis that year.[17]
Due to the ideological split known as theSecond Great Rectification Movement, theNegros Regional Party Committee of theNew People's Army broke away from theCommunist Party of the Philippines in 1996 and formed theRebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawà ng Pilipinas ("Revolutionary Workers' Party of the Philippines"). It organized its military arm two months after the split, calling it theRevolutionary Proletarian Army.[18]
TheMetro Manila-basedurbanassassination unit of theNew People's Army, known as theAlex Boncayao Brigade (ABB; also known as the Sparrow Unit),[19] also broke away from the New People's Army, and allied itself with the RPM-P and RPA in 1997.[20][21][22]
In 1999, the group began peace negotiations with the government, leading to a peace deal which was signed in 2000.[23]
In 1998, a group which operates mainly inCentral Luzon broke away from the Communist Party of the Philippines, taking up aMarxist-Leninist ideology instead of the CPP'sMarxism-Leninism-Maoism. This became theMarxist–Leninist Party of the Philippines which soon initiated conflict with the Philippine government through its armed wing, the Rebolusyonaryong Hukbong Bayan (RHB).[24]: 682 [25]
The conflict is still ongoing,[26][27][28] although incidents covered in the media focus more on incidents arising from the rivalry between RHB and NPA.[26]
Breaking away from the Communist Party of the Philippines during the 1992 split, the group which called itself the CMR (Central Mindanao Region) Rejectionist Group initially joined other rejectionist factions from elsewhere in the country. During peace negotiations with the Estrada administration, however, they split from the other groups and formed the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa sa Mindanao (RPM-M,lit. Revolutionary Workers’ Party in Mindanao). The group quietly began peace negotiations with the Philippine Government in 2003.[29]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)...[T]he Alex Boncayao Brigade (ABB), the urban guerilla [sic] unit of the New People's Army that the military has labeled the Sparrow Unit.
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