Philippine communist revolt marks 50th year

Reds in green: NPA guerrillas standing in formation in the Sierra Madre mountain range, east of Manila. — AFP

Manila: Philippine policewoman Ruby Buena’s introduction to one of the oldest communist insurgencies in the world was a roadside bomb blast followed seconds later by an eruption of gunfire.

“I thought it was my time to die,” said 25-year-old Buena, who instead woke up in a hospital with a cracked pelvis to learn three of her colleagues were dead in the 2018 attack in the central Philippines.

In a nation plagued by armed groups ranging from kidnap­-for-ransom outfits to secessionist movements, the communist New People’s Army (NPA) is among the deadliest.

Yet, after decades of failed peace efforts there is no end to the killing in sight as the campaign marks its 50th year.

The NPA launched its rebellion to create a Maoist state on March 29, 1969 – months before the first human landed on the moon.

It grew out of the global communist movement, finding fertile soil in the Philippines’ stark rich-poor divide.

The rebellion also benefited from Ferdinand Marcos’s 1972-1986 dictatorship, when the legislature was shuttered, the free press muzzled and thousands of opponents tortured or killed.

At its peak in the 1980s, the group had some 26,000 fighters in its ranks, but the number is now around 4,000, the military says.

Its main stronghold is in the Philippines’ restive south, but also scattered in the nation’s centre and a few areas in the north.

According to rarely revised official figures, the Maoist insurgency has killed up to 40,000 – less than a third of the estimate for the Muslim separatist rebellion in the south.

While the killing in the so-called Moro insurgency dropped off significantly even before a landmark 2014 peace deal, the NPA has maintained its campaign of violence.

Military figures show the communists were its deadliest opponent for the period of 2014-2018, killing 444 soldiers.

This outpaced kidnap-for-ransom group Abu Sayyaf and Islamic State group-aligned factions responsible for periodic spikes in killing like the 2017 Marawi siege.

“In terms of national security threats, NPA is the biggest for now,” military spokesman Noel Detoyato said.

The NPA’s staying power and reach are rooted in the Philippines’ deep poverty and the group’s ability to raise large sums of money.

It imposes a “revolutionary tax” in its strongholds, the equivalent of two per cent of any business project, that police say generates a minimum of 200 million pesos (RM15.47mil) per year.

Failure to pay results in violence, like torching a company’s heavy equipment or facilities.

This year promises to be a particularly lucrative one due to legislative elections set for mid-May.

Candidates are hit with “permit-to-campaign” fees if they want to hold events in NPA-controlled areas. — AFP