Name: Jan Aerielle D.

Almontero

Course and Section: AB Foreign Service & FS302

Subject: International Political Economy

Professor: Jumel G. Estrañero

Date: February 25, 2018

A Communistic “Coup D' Etat” in the Philippines

Insurgency is defined as a condition of revolt against a government that is less than an

organized revolution and that is not recognized as belligerency, one good example of insurgent
group here in the Philippines are the known CPP and NPA. The CPP–NPA rebellion refers to the
ongoing conflict between the Government of the Philippines and the communist coalition of the
Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People's Army (NPA). These two
insurgent groups seeks to overthrow the government of the Philippines to form a new state that
will be led by the working class of the society and to expel the influence of other countries
especially the United States.

The CPP-NPP has mostly followed the political and guerilla strategy of protracted
revolutionary warfare developed by Mao Zedong. Maoism is a political theory derived from the
teachings of the Chinese political leader Mao Zedong which was widely applied as the guiding
political and military ideology of one of the most known revolutionist group in the world which
is the CPC or the Communist Part of China. Differentiating the Maoism from other communist
theory like Marxism is that, Mao said that the peasants should be the bulwark of the
revolutionary energy, led by the working class of the society.

These insurgent group falls under the category of “irregular warfare” since the insurgency
normally lacks the organization of a revolution even though it has the same aims. Revolutions
often begin within a country's armed forces, whereas insurgencies often arise in remote areas,
where they gain strength slowly by winning the confidence of rural populations. An insurgency
may be based on ethnic or religious identity, or its roots may be basically political or economic.
Since insurgencies are rarely strong enough to face a national army head-on, insurgents (often
called guerrillas) tend to use such tactics as bombing, kidnapping, hostage taking, and hijacking.

While there is not much information on individual attacks, the CPP-NPA is one of the
most active militant organizations in the Philippines and has waged the world’s longest
Communist insurgency. The Armed Forces of the Philippines has identified the CPP-NPA as the
nation’s most serious threat, and in 2013, the CPP-NPA claimed responsibility for nearly a third
of the fatalities caused by terror attacks that year. Although primarily a rural-based guerrilla
group, the NPA has an active urban infrastructure to carry out terrorism; uses city-based
assassination squads called sparrow units. The group derives most of its funding from
contributions of supporters and so-called revolutionary taxes extorted from local businesses.
NPA was in disarray because of a split in the CPP, a lack of money, and successful government
operations. With the US military bases gone from the country, NPA engaged in urban terrorism
against the police, corrupt politicians, and drug traffickers. Strength was estimated by the US
government as of 2000 at several thousand. The Philippines government estimates there are
4,000 members.

In order to stop such movements and for it not to continue anymore I would like to
recommend for the government to continue its peaceful talk with the rebels for the safety of the
citizens of the country. If these two groups will not cooperate with the government after all then
there will no choice left for the government to pursue them and make them to surrender in order
to maintain the peace within the state. The government and the military must improve and
develop a strategy to counter each and every movement of the groups. Lastly, the government of
the Philippines must awaken the consciousness of its citizen especially the minds of the younger
ones to provide awareness among them all and to teach them the wrong doings of the insurgents.