New People's Army rebellion

This article is about the conflict between the Philippine government and the New People's Army. For the 1942–1954 insurgency, see Hukbalahap Rebellion. For other communist conflicts in the country, see Communist armed conflicts in the Philippines.
New People's Army rebellion
Part of the Cold War and the insurgency in the Philippines

Main areas of communist activity in the Philippine archipelago during the 1970s and 1980s
DateMarch 29, 1969 (1969-03-29) – present
(55 years, 7 months, 2 weeks and 5 days)
Location
Philippines
Status Ongoing[3]
Belligerents
Government of the Philippines
Supported by:
 United States (advisors)[1]		 Communist Party of the Philippines
Supported by:
 Soviet Union
 China (until 1976)[2]
Commanders and leaders
Civilian leaders

Bongbong Marcos
(President)
Gilberto C. Teodoro
(Defense Secretary)
Benjamin Abalos Jr.
(Interior Secretary)

Military

Romeo Brawner Jr.
(Armed forces chief)

Police

Rommel Marbil
(Police chief)
Mark D. Pespes
(SAF chief)

...full list
 #[5]
Luis Jalandoni
NPA commanders

Benito Tiamzon †
Wilma Austria †
Gregorio Rosal #
Jorge Madlos †[6]
Jaime Padilla (POW)[7]

...full list
Units involved

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)

Philippine National Police (PNP)

New People's Army (NPA)

CPP–NPA splinter groups
MLPP-RHB[3]
APP[3]
RPA[3]
ABB[3]
CPLA[3]
Strength
150,000 (AFP)[8]
228,000 (PNP)		 1,500 (2023)
Casualties and losses
1,132 killed (1969–2022) (according to the Philippine Army) 62,841 killed (1969–2022) (according to the Philippine Army)

The New People's Army rebellion (often shortened to NPA rebellion, among other acronym-based names) is an ongoing conflict between the government of the Philippines and the New People's Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Marxist–Leninist–Maoist[3][9] Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). It is the world's longest ongoing communist insurgency[10] and the largest, most prominent communist armed conflict in the Philippines,[9] with more than 43,000 insurgency-related fatalities between 1969 and 2008.[11] Due to the involvement of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), the legal wing of the CPP, in the conflict, it is also called the CPP–NPA–NDF conflict, or simply the C/N/N conflict, especially in the context of peace talks with the Philippine government.[12]

The history of the rebellion can be traced back to March 29, 1969, when Jose Maria Sison's newly formed CPP entered an alliance with a small armed group led by Bernabe Buscayno. Buscayno's group, which was originally a unit under the same Marxist–Leninist 1930s-era Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas-1930 (PKP-1930) with which Sison had split, was renamed the New People's Army (NPA) and became the armed wing of the CPP.[13] Less than two years later, President Ferdinand Marcos introduced martial law,[14][15] leading to the radicalization of many young people[16] and a rapid growth of the CPP-NPA.[17]

In 1992, the NPA split into two factions: the reaffirmist faction, led by Sison, and the rejectionist faction, which advocated the formation of larger military units and urban insurgencies. Several smaller insurgent groups eventually emerged from the split. This includes the 1995–present Marxist–Leninist[18] Revolutionary Workers' Party rebellion and the rebellion of the Marxist–Leninist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the Rebolusyonaryong Hukbong Bayan (RHB),[19]: 682  which broke away from the Communist Party of the Philippines in 1998 and has since been in conflict with both the government and the CPP.[20] Prior to the 1992 split, there had been one other significant splinter group – 1986–2011 Cordillera People's Liberation Army which had chosen to put greater emphasis on regional autonomy for the Philippines' Cordillera region.[21]

The year 2022 was marked with the deaths of Sison and the husband-and-wife duo of Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, the former being the alleged leader of the NPA.

  1. ^ "Defense.gov News Article: Trainers, Advisors Help Philippines Fight Terrorism". Archived from the original on July 14, 2015. Retrieved June 29, 2015.
  2. ^ "Philippines (New Peoples Army) (1972– )" (PDF). Political Economy Research Institute. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved December 14, 2014.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "Armed Conflicts: Philippines-CPP/NPA (1969–2017)". Project Ploughshares. Archived from the original on September 27, 2018. Retrieved April 15, 2020.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference BeA was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Highest tribute to Ka Fidel Agcaoili: working class revolutionary". National Democratic Front of the Philippines. August 4, 2020. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
  6. ^ Bacongco, Keith (October 30, 2021). "Ka Oris, Mindanao's top NPA leader, slain in encounter with gov't troops in Bukidnon". Manila Bulletin. Retrieved October 30, 2021.
  7. ^ Gotinga, JC (November 26, 2019). "NPA leader 'Ka Diego' arrested in San Juan City". Rappler. Archived from the original on July 22, 2022. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
  8. ^ "Military Strength". February 17, 2015. Archived from the original on February 23, 2015. Retrieved February 23, 2015.
  9. ^ a b "Philippines' communist rebellion is Asia's longest-running insurgency". South China Morning Post. September 16, 2019. Archived from the original on September 16, 2019. Retrieved February 23, 2020.
  10. ^ "Mapping Militants Profile: Communist Party of the Philippines – New People's Army". cisac.fsi.stanford.edu. Stanford University, Stanford, California: Stanford University Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies – Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). Retrieved April 15, 2020.
  11. ^ Holden, William Norman (November 12, 2013). "The Never Ending War in the Wounded Land: The New People's Army on Samar". Journal of Geography and Geology. 5 (4). doi:10.5539/jgg.v5n4p29. hdl:1880/50191. Archived from the original on February 14, 2015. Retrieved February 14, 2015.
  12. ^ Office of Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process. "CPP/NPA/NDF Introduction". PeaceGovPH. Retrieved May 9, 2023.
  13. ^ Suerte, Lysander (September 24, 2010). "Philippines 2010 and Beyond: The Need for Institutional Peace-Building" (PDF). Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies. Australian Defence College. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 23, 2018. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
  14. ^ Celoza, Albert F. (1997). Ferdinand Marcos and the Philippines: The Political Economy of Authoritarianism. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780275941376.
  15. ^ Schirmer, Daniel B. (1987). The Philippines reader : a history of colonialism, neocolonialism, dictatorship, and resistance (1st ed.). Boston: South End Press. ISBN 978-0896082762. OCLC 14214735.
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference RebellionRepressionPh was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ "New People's Army". Stanford University. August 22, 2012. Archived from the original on December 30, 2017. Retrieved February 9, 2015.
  18. ^ "About the RPM-M". Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved February 23, 2020.
  19. ^ Schmid, Alex Peter (2011). The Routledge Handbook of Terrorism Research – Google Books. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780415411578. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  20. ^ February 29, 2020 11:00 am PHT (February 29, 2020). "War with the NPA, war without end". Rappler.com. Retrieved March 2, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  21. ^ "Statement of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process during the Peace Media Forum, November 9, 2011". Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines. September 17, 2017. Archived from the original on September 17, 2017. Retrieved February 23, 2020.