IN TIME for the 48th year since the founding of the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) last March 29, 2017, a communiqué from the CPP was released that bears important news for observers of Philippine politics and society. The CPP-NPA-NDF, has been waging one of the longest armed insurgencies in the world and their recent pronouncement indicate a movement that is far from being the spent force that various quarters have been painting the mainly rural-based movement to be.
The big news is that since its founding in 1968, and amidst the cat and mouse dynamics that they have been playing with state security forces for the past almost five decades, the party was able to finally hold its Second Congress in an undisclosed guerilla base presumably in the hinterlands of Mindanao during the fourth quarter of last year. A battalion of red fighters and a solid mass base of peasant and indigenous groups helped secure the area for the gathering sometime between September to December 2016 but historically dated to have been staged last October 24 to November 7, 2016 in honor of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.
The statement proudly declared the attendance of their 120 delegates comprised of mostly senior cadres standing in as either attending or non-attending representatives of party formations from Mindanao, Visayas and Luzon. Political observers should take note that the newly elected members of the Central Committee are now made up of young and middle-aged cadres of the Party, according to the statement.
Various amendments to the Party’s constitution were also announced. Indicating the inevitable demographic shifts in membership after almost five decades, it is interesting to note that a new provision on retirement that entitles a 70-year old cadre to subsistence and medical assistance has been approved.
Soon, the exhaustive analysis within the updated Party program covering a new critique of the semi-colonial and semi-feudal social system in the post-Marcos era and the succession of pseudo-democratic regimes, will be made available and should be of interest to curious and involved scholars of Philippine social movements. But it is noteworthy that the communiqué cites the “insoluble and worsening crisis of the world capitalist system, the strategic decline of US imperialism, and the chronic crisis of the domestic ruling system” as bases for the new party program,
Reading between the lines, the announcement sounded off a change of leadership within the movement, the passing of the baton to younger member of the secretive underground communist group, while staying grounded on the same principles and beliefs that accounts for the movement’s longevity and resilience.
It is in the same spirit that Party Congress recognized the continuing relevance of Jose Maria Sision’s works, approve the official Filipino lyrics to the communist anthem “The Internationale,” and begin the preparations for the 50th year anniversary of the re-established party’s foundation in 2018. The theme of the congress said as much: “Greater unity, greater victories.”
These developments as conveyed in the communiqué and dramatized in the lightning rallies in Cubao, Quezon City and the Bangkerohan Market in Davao City within the week all portray a vibrant communist movement that seem unperturbed by the all-out-war announcement of the State a month ago after the stall in the peace talks. Braving state surveillance and impunity, underground activists, short of brandishing firearms, but carrying placards proclaiming their support for the armed struggle, occupied briefly these public places to dramatize their militance and resistance.
The objective conditions still provide much fuel to the fires of social discontent apparently and there is still no let up to the gallant tradition of nationalists from various sectors taking up the challenge of seeking long-lasting and genuine change by going up to the hills and mountains as thousands before them did for the last five decades. But even non-believers should begrudgingly admit, that the subjective response of the organization to the relentless attacks from within and without has only strengthened it and made the movement stronger.
In the eve of the much anticipated resumption of the peace talks this coming April 2017, these facts should be a wake-up call to all Filipinos and advocates for peace. The comrades are very much ready to fight and die in a war in order to achieve a just peace. Let us hope that government will take the high road and work together with the NDF panel in addressing the root causes of the armed conflict in our nation.
