Now that the Philippine government will be in an “all-out” war against the New People’s Army (NPA), the terrorist arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines, it is worth exploring some lessones learnt from the recent war that liberated Marawi City from similar terrorist elements.
To be sure, a war against the NPA will be vastly different from the Marawi City War which was confined to a relatively small area and involved a very distinct and visible enemy. The NPA are far more treacherous and insidious, are spread across the Philippine archipelago, and have long infiltrated and embedded themselves in the lives of many rural communities in the hinterlands. Not only that, they have entrenched themselves in the “activist” communities of most Philippine universities and exert almost full editorial control over school publications and other conventional mass media operated by these institutions. So such a war will go beyond high-profile combat operations and will require stepped-up intelligence operations requiring close coordination and intelligence-sharing across both military and law enforcement agencies.
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There are enough experts in the field that are adept at identifying the options and scenarios that may unfold in the coming months of such a war against such an enemy as well as comment on, and analyse these. As more odrinary observers, the aspect of war that touches the majority of Filipinos is what they see on TV and their social media feeds. This is where the Marawi War seems to have differentiated itself. One significant thing the Marawi War has proven is that Filipinos take great pride in seeing their boys in action. War is, indeed, a great unifying endeavour, and this truism was quite evident in the way this pride in our fighting men and women transcended partisan lines at the height of the campaign to rid Marawi from its terrorist infestation. Except for a handful of rabid bleeding-heart liberals and “human rights” extremists, Filipinos were united behind their armed forces and the police units that contributed to the success of the Marawi campaign.
If, indeed, there was a well-oiled PR machine behind the excellent way the Marawi War was pitched to the Philippine public via the media, we should tip our hats to those who coordinated and vetted delivery of vivid images and compelling stories of our boys in living colour to a Filipino public long-starved for a military win. This is not, of course, to even suggest that the military and police required such excellent PR support to begin with. The army and their police support personnel, were all properly-uniformed and armed, consistently helmeted, and looked superbly-professional and in good form. Female soldiers in significant numbers attested to the professionalism of the AFP as they demonstrate a level of discipline in the ranks that is suitable for the culture of diversity that makes the armed services appealing to female career fighters.
Indeed, the Marawi War was not just a military win, it was also a public relations win. When the public at large stands behind its military, its military fights well. And when its military fights well, a society’s citizens stand firmly behind it. The Filipino public, the police and the AFP need to beat the enemy together.
In the coming war against the NPA, Filipinos need to stand by their country’s fighters. There should be no divided opinion around the reality that the NPA are The Enemy and are terrorists. In a war, soldiers kill the enemy. This is the only way a war is won — by crushing the fighting ability of The Enemy which, at its simplest, means killing enemy fighters so that they can no longer shoot at Filipinos. Filipinos should not be distracted from the goal at hand which is to crush the New People’s Army. Permanently.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
The NPA and their ilk are a completely predictable product of Filipino “I want something for nothing” mentality and chronic bad government. “Revolutionaries” will not go away as long as the government continues to treat the country and its people as a (more-or-less empty) ATM and Filipinos continue to accept theft and begging as valid career choices.
Another round of extremely expensive violence isn’t going to fix what’s wrong inside Filipino heads.
As much as I want to see the NPA finally get Huk’d up, I can’t help shaking the feeling that the NPA and Abu Sayyaf are really just convenient brands for provincial ruling families use to provide cover or convenient manpower for their antics.
I stand with the troops on this one. I hope they fight well, and get all the equipment and intelligence they need. These commies have been a thorn for so long, be rid of them already.
Dream on. The NPA have outlasted Marcos, Cory, Ramos, Erap, Gloria and Pnoy. It will surely outlast Duterte. You ask why? Because of the fact that the AFP personels fight for money or their salaries while the NPA are fighting for their beliefs or principles. Take out the salary of soldiers and see if they are still wiling to die for their country. Until the root cause of poverty and injustice in this country is addressed, there will never be a lasting peace except for the peace that Duterte wants since he likes killing people, which is the peace of the grave. Ther is a far better chance that Duterte will be ousted by a coup or a people’s uprising than this government crushing the reds.
Rev: exactly. The funny thing is that the NPA and Duterte have no fundamental quarrel: they both think the country’s problems can be solved with violence.
Would we want to tell Ngek Ngek what we wanted was civil war to get rid of any communists and extremists? It would take more time.
We won’t know. God knows time will tell.
Why is there a need for civil war if the NPA were considered as terrorists?
You’re now back with your TROLLING antics again…
“AFP personels fight for money or their salaries”
I won’t let you speak of our soldiers that way. These are not mere mercenaries. Each have their own personal convictions that led them to a life in the military and many would lay down their lives to protect our worthless lives. Our military is a defensive one and not an army of conquest, so there is no money to be found here. You could be more respectful.
As for the NPA, all they want is anarchy and some just want power. These scum are worth less than mercenaries.
And it’s not like this government isn’t trying to create more jobs, and to address poverty. BTW, did you know that violence and lawlessness in NPA controlled areas causes poverty? This government should wipe out the NPAs in those areas, and then we can do business.
>> As for the NPA, all they want is anarchy and some just want power.
So, totally unlike the government, then?
I know a couple of officers in the Army. Solid guys, they are. However, they are in command of a poorly-trained, ill-equipped rabble, who are indeed in the job simply because it represents a regular (more-or-less) pay packet. They are surrounded by other officers who are corrupt and lazy. The Army is made up of Filipinos, just like every other government institution. And it fails in exactly the same ways.
Pointing out problems is not equivalent to “disrespect”. If Filipinos could stop demanding respect where none is due, they might actually get some.
>> And it’s not like this government isn’t trying to create more jobs, and to address poverty.
What utter nonsense. Can you pinpoint ONE SINGLE THING that the administration has done to make running a business here easier? Anything AT ALL that might turn 50 million unemployable tambuays and halfwitted school-leavers into useful employees? It is not the government’s job to “create jobs”. If they just leave people alone, stop stealing their money, stop creating ridiculous laws and procedures that destroy economic growth, and stop teaching schoolkids mindless nonsense, the jobs will take care of themselves.
Do you have any idea how much the Marawi fiasco cost, and will cost again in terms of cleanup? Somebody has to pay for that, and it’s not the average Filipino sitting on his ass waiting for the guava to drop in his mouth. It’s businesses and hard-working employees. The government cannot afford another military campaign unless there is a functioning economy to fund it. Yet again, the Filipino thinks 1+1 can equal 3 just because he’s a Filipino, and he demands that it should be so.
@Frank: my thoughts exactly. The NPA etc are convenient for somebody. Whether it’s the government or the local princelings is a moot point – they’re basically the same thing.
If NPA are so bad and the soldiers so honorable and not corrupt and the NPA are the reason for poverty in some areas, wouldn’t the NPA be easy to defeat since the people will not support them? So explain why they have outlast virtually all the Presidents and every AFP generals? Dick, you need to go out and live in the countryside to appreciate and get the real situation.
Crime and drug trafficking also outlasted “virtually all the Presidents and every AFP generals.” So would you too question why these two are “so bad”?
‘Crime and drug trafficking also outlasted “virtually all the Presidents and every AFP generals.”’
Isn’t that exactly what Rev said? His point (and mine) is that the NPA is a symptom of a deeper problem, not the problem itself. If you did somehow manage to kill all the (current) NPA members, the ranks will simply fill up again with a fresh batch of young boys with more testosterone and grudges than brains.
I think Rev’s point was more around whether or not the commies are “so bad”.
I didn’t see that anywhere in his posts, but maybe I’m biased. I certainly can’t see the words “not so bad” as you’ve quoted.
He’s just pointing out (as far as I can tell) that the NPA appeared, and continues to exist, for some glaringly obvious reasons. Lack of law enforcement is ONE reason, but it’s not the ONLY reason.
The NPA is accepted by the average Filipino because he’s completely used to being ripped off at every turn by his fellow Filipinos, so the NPA knocking on his door asking for random sums of money isn’t much different to the BIR doing the exact same thing.
The NPA is welcomed (sometimes) because they provide a policing service; however bad and unfair that ‘service’ might be, it’s better than the nonexistent government version. This scenario plays out in every country where the State fails to perform its basic duties.
Mr O’Rosary’s assertion that this ragtag band of idiots is responsible for poverty is just laughable. For every layabout who associates with the NPA so he can steal with impunity, there are 100 other layabouts who still steal with impunity without bothering with the NPA baggage. The cause of Filipino poverty is Filipinos. It’s really that simple.
I think you know all this, but it seems you can’t resist the urge to jump on the quick-fix bandwagon. First it was drug dealers. That didn’t pan out so well, so now it’s terrorists. Or, if you’re Mr Hyden Toro, it’s the CIA. I wonder whose fault it’ll be next year?
The NPAs have persisted because we have allowed them to. Think of cockroaches. If you have them in your house – blame yourself. You allowed them to get in; you created the smell that attracted them to you; and you did nothing about it.
The Filipino is his own worst nightmare; they just come in different colors – yellow, red, what have you. Talking of colorful lights, well it’s Christmas time again – and we have the longest of this season in the world simply because Filipinos just love the NPA mentality – which is best expressed by Jerry Maguire: Show Me The Money!
The NPA mentality demands that you give Filipinos the money they don’t deserve or worked hard for, because Filipinos would rather sit on their assess all day and cry out injustice when they see Henry Sy, again, on the list of top billionaires in Asia.
Filipino communists are willfully ignorant (stupid on purpose) when they blind themselves of the reality that the communist party in China runs the most well-oiled capitalist mega-state in the world. They are a bunch of lazy hypocrites who deserve what they’ve got coming – bullet slugs manufactured by fellow “communist” capitalist China, who earn a cent every time a gun is fired in the longest running war we have created to keep politics in PH “more fun” than anywhere else in the world.
Are you telling me to make like the hapless UP student asked by their friends to spend a couple of weeks “indoctrination” in the mountains, you can count me out. If we could cut these guys funding and if we can grow a bit of backbone and fight it out with these guys, instead of the piecemeal and half hearted attempts, they won’t “outlast” us much longer.
And funny you asked me to explain why these commies are still here. It’s an open secret that their survival during the Marcos era had something to do with the CIA and Aquino. 😉 That and their control of UP/PUP “intelligentsia” goes a long way to explaining our coddling attitude towards these rebels.
The New Peoples’ Army was a creation of the late, Ninoy Aquino, Jr. The Aquino Cojuangco family, with their Hacienda Luisita, supported the NPA, in their early days. Bernabe Buscayno, alias Kumander Dante, is from Tarlac.
The ideology of the Communist Party of the Philippines, is the same ideology, as the late , Mao Tse Tung in China. You cannot defeat an ideology, by killing its soldiers. An ideology can only be defeated by a better ideology.
The communist ideology is already an obsolete ideology. It has been tested in: China, Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Vietnam, etc…It did not work. North Korea is a good example. It’s people are starving, while their leaders are “pigging out” with abundant and the best food. Look at that North Korean leader, Kim Jung Un. He looks like a fat pig. Compared to his malnourished people. Communist system is more of a monarchy. The Kim’s of North Korea, ruled North Korea, from grandfather to grandchildren. Same as Cuba. The Castro brothers, ruled Cuba, for decades.
Recently, there was a North Korean soldier who defected to South Korea. They found out , the soldier was suffering from , malnutrition. His stomach was full of intestinal parasites. There was a long tapeworm inside his stomach.
You can see the NPA Supremo, Jose Maria Sison. He lives a lavish lifestyle in Amsterdam, Holland. Eating the best food, including “Godiva Chocolate”; wearing the best Armani Suit. While his NPA people, are collecting, revolutionary taxes, on anyone who has a good running business. The NPA has now become an Italian Mafia and Cosa Nostra. Its ideology is no longer applicable to the modern day world.
It is the higher ranks of the communist politburo that is taken cared of by the state, not the people.
The more we unite against these ideological dysafunctional people, the better !
Let’s see if those soyboy cucks on Twitter and their conyo campuses would throw their strength behind the NPA.
Why? So they can get rid of Duterte’s ugly mug and get back to the glorious pre-2016 days, of course.
You can bet your pwet they won’t help the stinking poor fighting in some forgotten mountain. They won’t be ditching bitching on their phones for handling an M16.
Deep inside the conyo, drunk, dissolute twat who spouts EJK 24/7 on Twitter is an elitist deeply disturbed by the prospect of uppity, brown, poor people (especially OFWs) forming political opinions. So you won’t find them going to do the “mamumundok” thing.
I have no idea what you even said there.
this blog used to be readable, but THIS IS GARBAGE of the most idiotic sort ! pickng it apart: HOW can it be shown, much less proven, that the NPA has “ENTRENCHED THEMSELVES” in the editorial offices of the countries Universities ? It is then insinuated that ‘bleeding heart’ ‘human rights extremists’ are somehow NOT behind the AFP, WHAT? So is it to be construed that citizens staunchly in favor of HUMAN RIGHTS are somehow equated with Radical Terrorist groups of outlawed armies? WHAT?
its GREAT to hear that the country should be united against an enemy, even if that enemy is an enemy that is blood related(?), but to pile up such propagandistic BULLSHIT as “the AFP was in fine form’, HA , because soldiers do not LOOK superbly professional they PERFORM it,and IF an ARMY such as the AFP actually is as PROFESSIONAL as it is supposed here…it doesn’t matter what the general public thinks of it, they will do there duty regardless. Also, how sad it is to have to inflate the egos of all involved in a fight against such a rag-tag bunch of loser’s as the NPA. The NPA, on a good day , the NPA could not field a couple of well-armed battalions of infantrymen nevermind a cavalry of mechanized fighting machines, its is a NON-ARMY BY THE DEFINITION of the word,ARMY….AND lastly is it really something to brag about that the AFP IS ‘consistently helmeted’ ?
You are right, of course. The AFP is not up to scratch, and I’ve written about that fact many times before.
But then, as usual, you missed the point of the article which is that, regardless of whatever, PR matters to the Filipino public. And so the AFP can play whatever hand it currently has as far as fighting the NPA. That’s their problem. The other war it can win (which it did in Marawi) is PR which is relatively cheap to succeed in.
but the Filipino public do not matter to the people that run the country, the people responsible for the sorry state of the AFP and the entire country for that matter.
the country needs a ‘French Revolution’ Reign of Terror ala Robespierre and friends, for sure…….
Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory is won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.
Look, for 45 years various administration has tried to defeat the New Peoples army to no avail, the military was even strongest and most violent during the Marcos regime and yet the communist expanded and became stronger during Martial Law. Have we learned our lessons yet? Now Duterte want’s to turn the entire country into a killing field by declaring them terrorists. Attack the root cause of the problem, which is poverty and injustice, and you will deny the NPA their mass base and support. There was a peace process which the pseudo “leftist and socialist” Duterete initiated earlier in his term which was the best way to address the insurgency. When it was useful, the President joined forces with the left to minimize dissent and put some credibility to his populist politics, to the dismay of the military. Now that the military has become indispensable to his plan to establish dictatorship, he has dumped the left and will now trigger another round of killings to justify a dictatorship.We may be on our way to another First Quarter Storm, the path that led Marcos to declaring Martial Law. Stop the killings and quick fixes and get back to building a progressive, inclusive, just and strong (strong institutions NOT strong politicians) republic and solve the insurgency problem.
Well, can you please explain this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF_l1ksGGQM
No wonder why Father Balweg was killed by his own comrades.
Anyhow, if you want to stop the killings, the NPA should do it first.