Aging and beaten, guerrillas explore new battlefronts
By Jocelyn Uy
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:56:00 12/26/2009
MANILA, Philippines – A week before the 41st founding anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), government troops handed over Romblon to local authorities, saying the Maoist revolution in the island province is over.
In ceremonies replicated in other areas across the archipelago over the past several years, military commanders told provincial officials that they had been liberated from insurgents that had stymied efforts at development.
Romblon, for example, remained undeveloped despite its economic and tourism potential. Communist guerrillas roamed the island, scaring off investors and tourists from its pristine beaches and coves, according to residents.
“I saw many factors that deeply affected our quest for dynamic eco-tourism,” said Ruby Salac, a native catechist at the St. Joseph Cathedral in the province capital, also called Romblon.
“Our problem was lack of publicity, which was aggravated by the stigma of peace and order problems, specifically because of the existence of the communist rebels,” Salac said. “I believe these made our islands secluded from local and foreign tourists.”
Armed with a 2006 directive from President Macapagal-Arroyo to eliminate the insurgency by the end of her term in June, the Armed Forces of the Philippines mounted a civic-military campaign to pry the guerrillas’ grip on the countryside and spur development.
The military has declared several dozen provinces “insurgency free” and handed over to local peace and order councils. In its campaign, troops are relying less on hammer and tongs and more on the subtle war for hearts and minds of the discontented.
“The number of provinces being turned over and the rebel returnees are good indicators that it is a dying movement,” said Brig. Gen. Francisco Cruz Jr., chief of the AFP civil relations service.
“Their party leaders and even guerrilla fighters are aging and sickly and because of the democratic space, they can hardly recruit now,” Cruz said, referring to the decision of such popular leftist leaders as Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza to seek senate seats in the May elections.
Sison on cyberspace
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) was established by English professor Jose Maria Sison on Dec. 26, 1968, in the aftermath of the Sino-Soviet split. He broke away from the much older, Marxist-oriented Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas and aligned himself with Maoist dogma and tactics.
The CPP’s armed wing, the New People’s Army, was established three months later, composed of 60 peasants lugging ancient rifles in Central Luzon. The NPA had a peak strength of 25,200 at the height of the Filipinos’ disaffection with the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Marcos then was described as the “poster boy” for communist recruiters.
Captured in 1977, the bespectacled Sison was tortured and imprisoned. He was freed by President Corazon Aquino under a general amnesty issued after the Edsa People Power Revolution in 1986 that ousted Marcos.
In 1988, as the Aquino administration faced a rightist rebellion and coup threats from disgruntled colonels, Sison went on self-exile in the Netherlands.
And, as his open-ended revolution lost its luster with the return of democracy in the Philippines and the crumbling of the Iron Curtain at about the same time, Sison has been reduced to using such hugely popular networking devices as YouTube and Facebook to keep the flame of his cause alive.
He croons patriotic songs, but the fire has been diminished by widely circulated videos showing him having a good time with Filipino sexy stars while in exile.
NPA strength further cut
Military records show that for the first semester of the 2009, the strength of the CPP’s armed wing shrank from last year’s 5,240 fighters to 5,021, showing a 78.8-percent decline from its peak during the Marcos years.
Cruz said the current NPA force was merely around 4,500, a number which could hardly “adversely influence our way of life.”
Records also show that the number of villages under NPA influence has declined by 81 percent in the last 23 years. Of the over 40,000 barangays, only 1,301 remain affected by the insurgency.
“There are still pockets of armed encounters but they are more of an exception than the rule. Generally, it’s business as usual for the entire country,” Cruz said.
In a speech during the AFP’s 74th anniversary on Thursday, the military chief of staff, Gen. Victor Ibrado, reported that the government troops had been able to “constrict” the CPP-NPA’s pipelines of support.
“No longer will they threaten our kababayans in Marinduque and Bohol … no longer they will be able to extort from our businesses in Romblon, Leyte and Misamis [because] these once threatened localities are now strongly denouncing their violent ways,” Ibrado said.
Now tourist places
Cruz also pointed out: “These conflict areas are slowly becoming a tourist destination and more people could try to invest in these areas without intimidation from the rebels.”
The military has also accounted for 560 rebels returning to mainstream society and gain access to the government’s social integration program, launched in June 2008. This provides a rebel returnee P20,000 cash allowance, P50,000 worth of livelihood assistance and P50,000 each for every firearm—such as an M-16 or M-14 rifle—turned over.
The Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process is processing under this integration program a fresh batch of 261 rebels who recently surrendered.
“These are all good indicators that we’re on the right track,” Cruz said, referring to the President’s deadline to crush the insurgency.
Guerrillas turn extortionists
He said low morale had swept the communist ranks, exacerbated by allegations of corruption within the organization. Officials said the guerrillas were nothing more than blackmailers and extortionists rather than ideologues.
“We are also happy that those who have been underground are now participating in the electoral process,” Cruz said, pointing to party-list Representatives Ocampo and Maza, who are running for senator under the Nacionalista Party of presidential aspirant Sen. Manny Villar.
“We don’t target them anymore, the legal opposition. We don’t see them as enemies … our enemies are the armed groups because they hamper development,” he said.
To the military, Ocampo and Maza’s senatorial bid was a “good sign” because it encouraged people to promote an advocacy through nonviolent means, Cruz said.
General Ibrado also pointed out that the two leftists had become “ordinary citizens” running for a government post.
More civic activities
For the next six months, the military said it would also shift its focus from combat operations to civil-military activities, beefing up community development programs like building farm-to-market roads, schools and bridges.
Upon his assumption of office as acting defense secretary last month, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said Malacañang was pursuing its counterinsurgency policy until Ms Arroyo’s term ends in June 2010.
“The policy on ending armed rebellion is rather fixed and our highest emphasis is on the peace process,” Gonzales said. He said the military would continue to push local officials to increase its involvement in ending armed rebellion.
“I don’t think we need to raise arms to do that and I think we had enough of that … there are enough avenues in the country,” he added.
The military has repeatedly maintained that the response to insurgency, which is a “multidimensional problem” must be all-encompassing, with 90 percent of the work on government officials, civil groups, the Church and community members, Gonzales said.
He hopes that by next year, there will be no one to celebrate another anniversary of the CPP.
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