The Philippine's NPA Insurrection

[the last donut of the night]

Just basically the question:

What does the NPA do? Is it popular? Has it been successful so far?

[scarletghoul]

We used to have one or two Filipino members on here who would have been useful, but theyre gone now

To be honest I do not know a lot about the communist insurgency there. They've been in a protracted peoples war against the state since 1969. The NPA is mostly active in rural areas of course, but it is just the military wing of a wider leftist movement, the National Democratic Front, which is headed by the Communist Party. The Communists and their leader Jose Maria Sison (currently in exile in Holland. Actually it's his birthday today ) are illegal, and considered terrorists officially. However they enjoy a lot of sympathy from what I can tell. Some of the ordinary filipinos ive spoken to online have been sympathetic to the communists, or at least they don't consider them terrorists (one even told me he thought the CPP could win an election if it was legalised), and Sison is seen as a popular and respected public figure who stands with the peasants and workers as well as against US colonialism. I also really like his poetry

As for the NPA in particular they seem to be steadily gaining ground at the moment. The government army is overstretched as its also fighting a muslim seperatist insurgency in the south. There's also a US military presence in the country on the pretext of fighting terrorism, and a couple of US soldiers have been killed last year. They are still however on the strategic defensive, the first part of the war. The CPP is planning to advance to the strategic stalemate in five years, increasing the number of guerilla fronts from 120 to 180 and increasing party membership to 200,000. They seem to be on the right course to do that as the recent victories have proven.

But really I dont know a lot about it sorry. Best to look up more info on things.

http://www.philippinerevolution.net/ the website of the NPA, CPP, and NDF

other useful sites-
http://www.josemariasison.org/
http://southasiarev.wordpress.com/ca...es-background/
http://southasiarev.wordpress.com/ca...lippines-news/