Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 25) — Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana urged the Communist Party of the Philippines to abandon its armed struggle, as the rebel group is expected to celebrate its 52nd founding anniversary on Saturday.
Lorenzana reiterated that he is convinced the communist movement in the country will not succeed in overthrowing the government.
“I call upon them to work with the government if what they allege they are fighting for is the welfare and well-being of the Filipinos,” said the secretary in a statement on Friday. “They have no reason to celebrate.”
However, the CPP maintained that its anniversary activities, such as gatherings and assemblies, will continue in cities and rural areas.
“These activities are going to be held clandestinely to evade suppression by the fascist enemy’s military and police forces,” the organization said in a statement.
The revolutionary group also said it expects government troops, particularly the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, to ramp up attacks in the middle of their anniversary celebration, similar to the arrests made against red-tagged activists on International Human Rights Day. Officials from the NTF-ELCAC have been under scrutiny over repeatedly accusing progressive politicians and even celebrities, of colluding with communists.
“In their desperation to drown the joyous and militant spirit of the Party’s anniversary celebration, it is not far fetched for Duterte’s NTF-ELCAC to carry out another clampdown against the legal democratic forces, as it did last December 10, again by baselessly linking them with the revolutionary armed struggle in the countryside,” the CPP raised.
Armed Forces chief General Gilbert Gapay argued that the CPP is “in disarray,” noting recent encounters where rebels have been killed and their weapons confiscated.
Most recently, on Christmas eve, two members of the CPP’s armed wing, the New People’s Army, were killed in a clash with military troops in Negros Oriental.
“They (CPP) might as well add ‘remorseful’ to their uneventful activity,” said Gapay in a statement, referring to the CPP anniversary.
The CPP, however, argued that its forces are getting stronger.
“The New People’s Army (NPA) has built new guerrilla fronts and expanded old guerrilla fronts in several regions despite the large-scale and sustained focused military operations mounted by the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” it said.
The CPP was formed by Jose Maria Sison on Dec. 26, 1968.
