CPP/Ang Bayan: Interview with Ka Oris

“The 45th anniversary of the New People’s Army is a major victory because we have overcome so many enemy attacks, the many problems we have encountered, and the challenges we face… So I congratulate the Communist Party of the Philippinesbecause due to its absolute leadership, the revolutionary armed struggle continues to advance and gain strength all over the country.”

Particularly in Mindanao, the the main factors for the continued advance of the NPA is first, its observance of the Communist Party of the Philippines’ absolute leadership. With its adoption of an offensive posture, it has never lost the initiative amid the brutal internal security plans (ISP) of successive reactionary governments. Under the latest ISP, Oplan Bayanihan, not a single guerrilla front was dismantled. Instead, from 40 guerrilla fronts, we now have 46 guerrilla fronts throughout the island.

Another factor is that the NPA has expanded and taken deep roots among the people in the island. So, no matter what the enemy does to isolate the New People’s Army from its mass support, it is the people who voluntarily support their army because it is their only hope to achieve land reform and national industrialization. The NPAnow operates in more than 200 towns and more than 2,000 barangays.

In the past several years, hundreds of thousands of people have benefited from agrarian revolution which has raised the wages of farm workers and reduced land rent and rentals of agricultural equipment like rice mills.

The benefits gained by the people from the agrarian revolution being launched by all the revolutionary forces in the uplands are also a factor in the growth, deepening and expansion of mass support in the entire island. From this, we have also been able to establish barrio revolutionary committees, or organs of political power where the people themselves run their government with the legal reactionary government seemingly still existing. Some organs are at the municipal level.

Aside from this, the NPA has also established many units of the people’s militia to support it in its military work. At present, there are at least 30 to 40 battalions all over Mindanao when concentrated. They are present in the island’s five regions: the Southern Mindanao Region; the Northcentral Mindanao Region; the Northeastern Mindanao Region; the Far South Mindanao Region; and the Western Mindanao Region. They directly support the more than ten battalions of NPA regular forces.

The advance of armed struggle in the entire island can be measured by the number of tactical offensives launched by the NPAin the last four years. In 2010, there were only about 250 plus tactical offensives in the entire island. This grew to more than 300 in 2011, to 400 in 2012 and more than 400 in 2013. These offensives were launched despite the successive attacks under Oplan Bayanihan. In 2014, the NPAwill definitely be able to launch more than 500 tactical offensives all over Mindanao.

Consequent to these tactical offensives, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, PNP and CAFGU have been suffering at least a battalion of casualties annually in the last four years. On the other hand, the NPA’s casualties average about a platoon. Thus, although the enemy enjoys a strategic advantage in terms of strength and numbers—there are ten soldiers for every Red fighter—the NPA has demonstrated its superiority over the enemy in gunbattles where the casualty ratio is one Red fighter for every ten enemy elements.

Since the beginning of 2014, the US-Aquino regime has been stepping up its counterrevolutionary war in Mindanaoin a desperate attempt to crush the NPA in the island. More than 60% of the AFP’s entire combat force has now been deployed to Mindanao. This deployment is in line with the reactionary state’s objective of defending foreign mining and agro-industrial corporations in the island. The imperialists and comprador bourgeoisie have already invested huge sums of money in these companies. Besides, USimperialism is also keenly interested in building military bases in Mindanao for its troops, planes and ships.

With the influx of AFP combat forces in the island, the US-Aquino government is sure to inflict more human rights violations and other gross injustices on the people. But the people of Mindanao will go on resisting, and the NPA, CPPand NDF in the island will go on fighting whatever grave scheme the brutal US-Aquino regime has in store for Mindanao. The Aquino regime will not succeed, and will in fact have an even bigger problem in its hands because having concentrated its forces and resources in the island, they will have given a big advantage to the revolutionary forces in all of Luzon and the Visayas to advance further.