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View Full Version : [Philippines]CPP-NPA facing post-election split



thomasludd
6th June 2010, 11:00
news about the split facing the Communist Party of the Philippines

CPP-NPA facing post-election split


MANILA, Philippines - The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), are facing a split as a result of the recently-concluded national and local polls.


Captured CPP-NPA documents in the hands of the military showed that the decision of CPP founding chair Jose Ma. Sison to allow the Makabayan Party to join the political contest is now being challenged by Mindanao-based NPA leader Benito Tiamzon.


Tiamzon, the documents showed, has maintained that Sison’s decision to support a presidential candidate as well as putting up their own national candidates was in direct contrast to the CPP-NPA’s ideology to install a communist regime via the armed overthrow of the democratic state.


“The party leadership took a huge gamble when it decided to join the political contest and align with Manny Villar and the Nacionalista Party (NP). It was a gamble that did not prove beneficial to us, most obviously in the electoral realm,” said the NPA’s three-page post-election paper, now undergoing continuous intelligence evaluation by the military’s intelligence community.


Tiamzon was apparently referring to left-wing party-list Reps. Satur Ocampo of Bayan and Lisa Maza of Gabriela who ran for the Senate under Villar’s NP.

A hardliner, Tiamzon, has been advocating for the continuance of the armed struggle to defeat the government while Sison has adopted the political side of battle by way of political participation of party members.
The documents were among the bundles of documents seized in recent combat operations against the communist insurgents in Southern Philippines.


Villar has already conceded defeat to presidential front-runner Sen. Benigno Aquino of the Liberal Party (LP).


Ocampo and Maza, believed to be the CPP’s candidates, also lost in their bid to land a Senate seat.


Another document also in possession of the intelligence community showed that before aligning with the NP, the CPP leadership reportedly negotiated but failed to get a deal with the LP.


The negotiation that happened between the second and third quarters of 2009 did not push through after then LP presidential aspirant Sen. Mar Roxas declined the CPP’s offer of three million votes, vote denial capabilities through the NPA’s 8,000 to 10,000-strong armed force, in exchange for P400 million, two senatorial candidates and four Cabinet posts.


“While the Liberal Party rejected the CPP’s terms, it is also safe for us to assume that the NP-CPP had similar terms, although in one of the CPP’s newsletters it only reported that the party was only able to cut a deal in the amount of P60 million,” a Camp Aguinaldo insider said.
He added that the CPP-NPA captured documents, aside from its “high intelligence value,” also highlighted the ongoing internal debate that could lead to a major split.


“Tiamzon was correct. The 2010 elections marked not only a temporary moment of weakness (with the CPP-NPA) but possibly the start of a long-term institutional decline within the party,” a senior military intelligence officer said.


He added that the election results also disproved the CPP-NPA’s claim that it could deliver the winning votes and thus weakened its bargaining position in any future political exercise.


“While the CPP claims to have up to four million command votes, its party-list groups only received approximately two million votes, which can be also deduced that a sizeable chunk of this two million are market votes. It is now evident that the CPP can only reasonably claim a command vote of approximately 1.5 million or less,” the intelligence official said.
Although he admitted that the 1.5 million votes is still big enough, compared to the entire 90 million Filipinos, he said the number is minimal.

(i still cant post links so just connect them)

philstar.com
/Article.aspx?articleId=577683&publicationSubCategoryId=63


For more info on the group against Joma Sison, they have established this website:
bulatlatan.multiply.com

The Vegan Marxist
6th June 2010, 11:15
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=577683&publicationSubCategoryId=63

There's a link to this article.

I don't see how this will effect the revolution being waged by NPA too much, nor do I see this would necessarily lead to a split between the CPP & NPA, but as of right now this is all purely accusation & we're left with unclear details of what the documents completely said. We should wait for a response by either the CPP &/or NPA on what this necessarily pertains to. Thanks for the information, nonetheless. Though, we must also keep in mind that this is 2 weeks old & have yet to hear of anything about it since, from either side, so let's not take this too serious for the time being shall we.

thomasludd
6th June 2010, 11:39
I don't see how this will effect the revolution being waged by NPA too much, nor do I see this would necessarily lead to a split between the CPP & NPA, but as of right now this is all purely accusation & we're left with unclear details of what the documents completely said. We should wait for a response by either the CPP &/or NPA on what this necessarily pertains to. Thanks for the information, nonetheless. Though, we must also keep in mind that this is 2 weeks old & have yet to hear of anything about it since, from either side, so let's not take this too serious for the time being shall we.

this has been brewing since 2009 before the elections. You can check the Bulatlatan articles. While I'm not one who takes this split seriously (i'm not from any related group), I'm just posting info for those interested to know, especially the Maoists from the first world (like what Scarletghoul said).

What i find in the available resources is there are 2 apparent factions:
1. Sison, the Utrecht leadership, and the Partylist groups - accused of parliamentarism
2. Tiamzon and others - reasserting / reaffirming the Protracted people's war as the only strategy,

The Vegan Marxist
6th June 2010, 19:15
this has been brewing since 2009 before the elections. You can check the Bulatlatan articles. While I'm not one who takes this split seriously (i'm not from any related group), I'm just posting info for those interested to know, especially the Maoists from the first world (like what Scarletghoul said).

What i find in the available resources is there are 2 apparent factions:
1. Sison, the Utrecht leadership, and the Partylist groups - accused of parliamentarism
2. Tiamzon and others - reasserting / reaffirming the Protracted people's war as the only strategy,

We'll just see how this all revolves itself around as time goes by. For now, the revolution is the most important thing right now for the CPP & NPA.

The Vegan Marxist
7th June 2010, 19:33
I'd like to release this now, in which the National Democratic Front of the Philippines have spoken out against the split allegations being rumored against the CPP/NPA:


NDFP HRC chairman says allegations of splits are cover up for escalation of extra-judicial killings
June 7, 2010

For as long as the ruling system of big landlords and compradors is in place in the country, the revolutionary movement will continue to grow, and no amount of drumbeating by the regime’s minions like Norberto Gonzales and Annabelle Abaya can bring about its weakening or defeat. These masters of rumor-mongering can live with their illusions even after stepping out of their offices on 30 June.

This was declared today by Fidel V. Agcaoili, chairman of the human rights committee of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) on allegations of splits in the revolutionary movement as a result of the just-concluded reactionary elections.

“These charlatans keep on churning out the tired old line of divisions in the national democratic movement in order to cover up their own failures and corrupt practices, justify the continuing grave human rights violations and extra-judicial killings, and even provide a convenient excuse for the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) to withdraw from the peace negotiations with the NDFP,” he remarked.

“The NDFP has already announced its readiness to resume the peace negotiations with the new GRP administration in accordance with signed agreements such as The Hague Joint Declaration, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Agreement (JASIG) and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL). The Noynoy Aquino administration can follow or not the advice of the outgoing officials of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regime. Whatever it does, the revolutionary movement is ready to respond appropriately,” Agcaoili added.

“Gonzales and Abaya, as well as their trained Goebbels in the Civil Relations Service (CRS) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), have been repeatedly predicting the so-called demise of the revolutionary movement. But, after pouring billions of pesos for additional troops, equipments, the arming of paramilitary units, conducting prolonged military operations, building blockhouses, terrorizing entire communities, and fielding of death squads to target civilians, Gonzales has failed miserably in his set objective. As for Abaya, she has admitted to massive corruption in the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) which exposes the true nature of its localized peace talks and Social Integration Program (SIP) as milking cows for the military,” he stated.

“The recent extra-judicial killing of Edward Panganiban, a labor leader in Southern Tagalog, came just after the GRP announcement of an alleged split in the national democratic movement as a result of the reactionary elections. The masterminds behind these killings and grave human rights violations are bound to be exposed and the victims shall be given justice,” Agcaoili concluded.

Source (http://www.philippinerevolution.net/cgi-bin/statements/releases.pl?date=100607;refer=fva;lang=eng)

scarletghoul
8th June 2010, 03:22
How does this indicate an imminent split ?? It's a disagreement, a contradiction within the party. These happen all the time and are a healthy thing. They do not cause splits in parties aslong as there is a functioning Democratic Centralism, which I think the CPP would have.

Yes, I think there is maybe a problem and gap between the political leadership in the Netherlands and the military leaders on the ground. But as long as people are being rational they would do all they can to avoid a split. Plus the election is over, with no political power for the pro-CPP candidates, so participation in politics really is not an urgent issue at the moment, just a disagreement. Repressive campaigns are intensifying, the NPA is gaining more ground, it would be completely stupid to split right now.

This article seems to have been written either by someone who does not understand the idea of inner-party contradictions and debate, or someone deliberately spreading sensationalist allegations to demoralise the movement.

If the CPP splits any time soon, I will eat my Mao hat.

thomasludd
8th June 2010, 05:17
How does this indicate an imminent split ?? It's a disagreement, a contradiction within the party. These happen all the time and are a healthy thing. They do not cause splits in parties aslong as there is a functioning Democratic Centralism, which I think the CPP would have.

Yes, I think there is maybe a problem and gap between the political leadership in the Netherlands and the military leaders on the ground. But as long as people are being rational they would do all they can to avoid a split. Plus the election is over, with no political power for the pro-CPP candidates, so participation in politics really is not an urgent issue at the moment, just a disagreement. Repressive campaigns are intensifying, the NPA is gaining more ground, it would be completely stupid to split right now.

This article seems to have been written either by someone who does not understand the idea of inner-party contradictions and debate, or someone deliberately spreading sensationalist allegations to demoralise the movement.

The splits in the 90's started with conflicts like this. Have you read the articles in the blog i sent?

The reason why i am detached about this (and don't see the agenda of promoting movement demoralization as a valid reason) is because i am an outsider. This also makes me more relatively objective when looking at the movement/s as a whole. Before the thread leads to such, please remember that i have no agenda here. I'm just posting things of interest.


If the CPP splits any time soon, I will eat my Mao hat.

you did not just say that! someone has to be a witness to the act if a split happens! :)

but the split should be qualified, since there are times that the party would claim to expel a large faction, and the faction would claim it to be a split. :lol: