For the past five decades, the Communist Party of the Philippines-New Peoples’ Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) has been the scourge of the Philippine internal peace and development efforts.
Tens of thousands of Filipino lives have already been lost in the last half century. While it is true that there are significant gains and achievements both with the boots on the ground, the dismantling of their political structures, and the exposure of their mode of manipulation, the end to the onslaught of the CPP-NPA-NDF remain hostaged by wishful thinking.
The CPP-NPA-NDF is not a simple enemy. The CPP’s survival for the last 55 years is a testament that they can adapt to new social dynamics, realign political interest, and revamp methodologies of both armed and unarmed warfare.
The CPP has undergone two internal rectifications, several purges of their own personnel, and the decimation of multiple of their own guerilla fronts yet it seems that the CPP always has the capacity to revive its forces and reinsert itself back into national political relevance.
For example, from the implementation of the second rectification movement that saw a massive split in their legal and political organs in 1992-1995, it only took the CPP six years to regain national relevance through careful political machination during the Erap Resign campaign in 2001.
With a healthy political movement above-ground, fresh recruits of cadres were available to replenish their guerilla fronts. The CPP-NPA-NDF could be construed as a well-oiled social, political, and armed machinery that can change face at a moment’s notice.
The organization has the capacity to swim from the hinterlands and the mountains towards the halls of both Congress and Malacañang. Its operatives are embedded in most social institutions, from the church to mass media.
The strategy and tactic employed by the CPP-NPA-NDF is tailor-fitted to achieve success in a maturing democracy like the Philippines.
While the CPP-NPA-NDF is a complex monster, their formula for success is a simple one. As stated earlier, the strategy and tactic employed by the CPP-NPA-NDF is tailor-fitted to achieve success in a maturing democracy like the Philippines.
A maturing democracy is described as a society whose political institutions are still weak to actually carry out genuine social reforms in the long run.
For a maturing democracy to actually achieve and maintain societal cohesiveness, it must be supported by external institutions as a measure for check and balance.
For the Philippines, it is the Church, mass media and educational institutions, and civil society organizations. These institutions act as external Estates that assist the State by filling-in the gaps in governance and administration and in the delivery of basic social services especially in areas where it is needed the most.
These institutions are vital in maturing democracies because they provide breathing rooms for States by ensuring that the people would not upset themselves and revolt because of the inefficacies of governance and the limitations in the implementation of social reform programs.
These Estates become alternative political organs where one need not negotiate directly with the powers that be. In one word, these external Estates provide hope.
However, with the CPP’s infiltration, if not actual control over some of these institutions, hope becomes a weapon to corrupt the mind and the heart. The beacon of hope that these institutions are meant to carry become means to a more violent end.
There are already countless narratives where young cadres are transformed into guerillas and become unwitting victims of the CPP-NPA-NDF’s terrorist activities just because their hope for a better future are maligned with the vision of the CPP.
If we cannot reclaim this narrative of hope, there is no use in fighting the CPP-NPA-NDF.
They will just reuse the same wheel and spin the same lies again and again to reactivate local party bureaus, reestablish guerilla fronts, and propagate the same terrorism for the next fifty years.
Under this framework, what then is the historically accurate antithesis to the CPP-NPA-NDF? Given that we are a maturing democracy, the people must regain the alternative platforms offered by these institutions, especially those that are being operated by the CPP-NPA-NDF.
On issues involving peasants and farmworkers, there must be an alternative for them so that they will not go to Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas. On issues involving indigenous peoples, there must be an alternative for the IPs so that they will not go to Katribu.
On issues involving the violation of women’s rights, there must be an alternative, so that they will not go to Gabriela. And the list for the sectors goes on and on.
If the CPP-NPA-NDF, or BAYAN in terms of consolidated legal operations, is the supposed alternative to mainstream political platforms, we must create a genuine alternative that is anchored on genuine social reforms.
We must plan for a long-term political center and platform that can cater for the genuine hope for change that the Filipinos long for – be it localized or sectoral issues concerning one segment of society, or national in scope concerning lasting reforms. It need not be supported by the government in the long-run.
While the government and other freedom-loving citizens can contribute to its establishment, there will come a time that these alternative platforms can provide for themselves.
The CPP-NPA-NDF flourished with this framework using their NGO-led ecosystem, we can replicate that model without reinventing the wheel.
If the funding from abroad facilitated by the CPP goes to the actual communities and sectors that need them instead of being used to fund the NPA’s terrorist activities, we can truly build this nation one community at a time.
If we can build this network and reify the hope that is needed by this country, we can directly contribute to our maturing democracy.
There is no scarcity of people who are willing to work towards a better Philippine society.
The CPP-NPA-NDF’s continued survival is a testament to that.
Hope is alive and thriving. We just need to do our part and hope for the right future.
– Dra. Lorraine Badoy
NTF-ELCAC, Former Spokesperson
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