MANILA, Philippines—Marking the founding anniversary of its rebel army, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) ordered its forces to expand their guerrilla fronts to cover 173 congressional districts in the country, in response to the military’s declared goal of wiping out the rebels by 2010.
In a statement to commemorate this Saturday’s 39th anniversary of the New People’s Army (NPA), the CPP said the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was “daydreaming” by boasting it could defeat the NPA.
The rebels’ Central Committee also said that aside from the scandals that had hit President Arroyo’s family and her key officials, the country faced rice shortage and soaring prices of the commodity.
“This problem has already caused malnutrition on a national scale and starvation in certain areas,” it said.
Police on full alert
To preempt any guerrilla attacks, the Philippine National Police on Friday went on full nationwide alert. The Armed Forces of the Philippines said it had not elevated its alert status but it was ready for any rebel violence.
“The guerrilla fronts must increase in number from the current level of 120-130 to 173 in order to cover all congressional districts in the provinces,” the CPP said. “These must be seed units for building new guerrilla fronts.”
Military officials say the NPA had 87 guerrilla fronts throughout the country as of end 2007.
A guerrilla front refers to the rebels’ area of operation, also called the “theater of war,” said NPA sources in Quezon province, east of Manila.
Intensify attacks
The guerrilla war has claimed more than 40,000 lives between 1984 and 2005, according to government figures and to independent sources.
Peace talks, brokered by Norway, have been stalled since August 2004 after the rebels accused the government of refusing to persuade the United States and some Western European states to remove the NPA from their terrorism blacklists.
Military officials have admitted the NPA still remains as the top internal security threat.
In its statement, the CPP leadership ordered its forces to intensify their tactical offensives to seize weapons and meet the demands of what it claimed was an increasing number of guerrilla fighters.
Miners, loggers are targets
The CPP said certain enterprises, such as mines, plantations, logging and certain installations, were being targeted “because these were detrimental to the interest of the people.”
The CPP said that by attacking private business, rebel forces compelled the government “to deploy guard units at separate places, each one of which or whose line of supply is vulnerable to further offensive actions by the NPA.”
Prospects for resuming formal talks between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines are “dim or nil,” the CPP said.
“The Arroyo regime ... even demands the capitulation of the NDFP as precondition to mere exploratory talks,” it said.
CPP beginnings
After an ideological split with a 1930s-era pro-Soviet communist party that the military defeated in the 1950s, former University of the Philippines professor Jose Maria Sison set up the CPP with a Maoist-oriented ideology in 1968.
On March 29 of the following year, Sison led the formation of the NPA, the CPP’s armed wing, from a ragtag group of 60 guerrillas armed with nine automatic rifles, 26 single-shot rifles, and handguns.
At its peak in the 1980s, the NPA had an armed strength of 25,000 men.
Ms Arroyo has given security forces until 2010 to defeat the guerrillas.
Rebels’ strength has waned, says military
At the end of 2007, the military claimed the rebels’ strength had dropped to its lowest level in 20 years, with 5,760 fighters.
Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesperson, Senior Superintendent Nicanor Bartolome said the full alert ordered by the PNP chief, Director General Avelino Razon, meant all police personnel would have to stay at their post at all times.
“This is in preparation of the anniversary tomorrow [Saturday] of the New People’s Army,” Bartolome told reporters. “We don’t want our personnel to be placed in a situation where they will be surprised, if ever there are plans from the NPA to conduct their own terrorist activities.”
He said government forces were on track to meet the 2010 deadline to wipe out the NPA.
No specific threat
Bartolome said the PNP had not received any reports of specific plans by rebels to launch attacks but that they were anticipating them.
He said the number of NPA fighters had declined over the years.
“Many have been neutralized, some have been surrendering. We expect that their numbers will go down further especially since 2010 deadline is close,” Bartolome said.
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said the AFP had not been put on red alert because there was no specific threat from the insurgents. But he added: “We simply have to be ready.”
Asked if the lack of a specific alert order indicated AFP confidence about the situation, Esperon said: “We don’t want to be confident.”
AFP spokesperson Lt. Gen. Bartolome Bacarro said the alert level on the ground would depend on the “prevailing situation.”
“The commanders ... have the discretion to determine the alert level they would implement in their areas of responsibility,” Bacarro said
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