OVERVIEW: HISTORY OF INSURGENCY

IN THE PHILIPPINES – CNN

• Insurgency in the most basic form is a
struggle for control and influence,
generally from a position of relative
weakness, outside existing State
institutions.
(cont.) It can exist apart from or
before, during, or after a conventional
conflict. Elements of a population
often grow dissatisfied with the status
quo.
(cont.) When a population or groups in
a population are willing to fight to
change the conditions to their favor,
using both violent and nonviolent means
to affect a change in the prevailing
authority, they often initiate insurgency.
 HISTORY OF THE COMMUNIST
PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES

Founding of the Communist Party of the

Philippines
 February 1922
An American communist, purportedly
representing the Philippines attended
(cont.)the Congress of Toilers of the Far
East in Moscow
 October 6, 1923
The International Press Correspondence
reported that the Prof Intern recognized
the importance of the Philippines as
“strategic point in the Pacific Ocean”.
(cont.) as “strategic point in the Pacific
Ocean”.
 July 20 1925
Tan Malaka alias Elias Fuentes
arrived in Manila along with 5 or 6
Indonesian refugees from Dutch
authorities.
 1928
 Crisanto Evangelista and Cirilo Bognot
attended the Prof Intern Conference held
in Moscow.
 August 26, 1930
 Sixty labor delegates met at the Templo
del Trabajo to set up the PKP
 November 7, 1930
PKP was proclaimed at Plaza
Moriones, Tondo. Evangelista headed
the 7-man POLITBURO (Political
Bureau – armed revolution against the
government) and the 35-man Central
Committee
 October 26, 1932
• Supreme Court formally outlawed the
PKP
• Emphasis on armed revolution
• Adoption of parliamentary means to
succeed in the revolution.
 1932
Socialist Party headed by PEDRO
ABAD SANTOS was organized in
Central Luzon
 MERGER OF THE PKP AND THE
SOCIALIST PARTY
 November 7, 1938
Merger between the PKP and the
Socialist Party after Crisanto
Evangelista was given conditional
pardon by the Commonwealth
Government.
 THE PKP DURING THE JAPANESE
OCCUPATION
 06 Feb 1942
The Central Luzon Bureau conference
decided to organize a guerrilla army.
Vicente Lava became general secretary
and was elected in absentia.
 29 Mar 1942
The HUKBALAHAP was established in
Bo San Lorenzo, Cabiao, and Nueva
Ecija.
 Mar 1943
Japanese forces launched a raid in
Mt Arayat which resulted in the
capture of many leading party cadres
and members.
• The first line of leadership was
arrested by the Japanese when the
Japanese army occupied Manila in
January 1943.
• Majority of the party members fled
to various towns in Central Luzon.
Japanese forces arrested
EVANGELISTA, ABAD SANTOS,
(cont.)CAPADOCIA, DEL ROSARIO
and others.
Sep 1944
BAGUMBALI conference declared the
“retreat for defense” policy as incorrect.
HUKBALAHAP squadrons were
regrouped to take the offensive.
 THE PKP AFTER WORLD WAR II
A.At the end of World War II, the party
leadership decided to shift its
headquarters and the center of its
political activities from the countryside
to the city.
B.Party-supported members of
congress who had been elected in the
1946 elections were ousted from
congress.
 CPP DURING THE HUK CAMPAIGN
,

 October 18, 1950

Members of the Politburo-In were
arrested. 105 communist suspects
operating in Manila together with 5 truck-
loads of communist documents were
taken by gov’t operatives.
 February – March, 1951
Politburo-Out (the second line of
leadership headed by DR. JESUS
LAVA) organized a Central
Committee conference and decided
to continue with the old party
orientation.
 Between 1951-1954
Many principal leaders of the PKP
fell under massive gov’t operations.
 May 16, 1954
LUIS TARUC (Democratic Alliance
member, who was supported by the
Party and was elected to Congress
on April 23, 1946), bitterly
disillusioned, surrendered to the
government.
 REASONS FOR PKP’S DEFEAT

1. IDEOLOGICAL WEAKNESSES
a.PKP leadership was involved in
subjectivism.
b.The LAVA leadership was criticized
as having failed to grasp the nature of a
proletarian revolutionary ideology and
applied it on the concrete condition.
2. POLITICAL ERRORS

a. PKP did not mobilize the peasantry

as the main force of the insurgency.
At the later stage, HUK units
operated as roving rebel bands
detached from its popular support.
2. POLITICAL ERRORS

b. LAVA erroneously underestimated

the gov’t forces and planned for a
two- year campaign prior to
takeover.
3. MILITARY ERRORS

a. The party failed to appreciate the

strength of the AFP and launched
several attacks which were initially
successful but in the long run, the
HUKs were defeated in the entire
struggle.
b. The HUKs failed to appreciate their
inherent strength as guerrilla forces
which could dissipate and spread
the gov’t forces over a wide area if
a nation-wide deployment was
followed.
4. ORGANIZATION ERRORS
The main disability of the PKP was
its failure to build an organization
that had a broad mass character and
one which was national in scale.
THE REESTABLISHMENT OF THE CPP
These are:
A. Ideology
B. Political
C. Organization
 TWO-PHASED DEVELOPMENT OF THE
REESTABLISHED CPP
A. Urban Phase - 1961 to 1972 (Pre Martial Law)
•1961 - Established of National
Organization in the University of the
Philippines as an effect of the national
sentiment.
Nov 1964
JOSE MA. SISON who was
indoctrinated in Red China organized
the Kabataang Makabayan.
26 Dec 1968

A Maoist leaning Communist Party of

the Philippines was formally
established by Jo Ma SISON with 13
other party mbrs in a barrio in
Mangatarem, Pangasinan, Namely:

ARTHUR GARCIA NILO TAYAG

FERNANDO TAYAG LEONCIO CO
MONICO ATIENZA HERMINIGILDO
GARCIA IV
MANUEL ”Noli” RENATO CASIPE
COLLANTES
RUBEN GUEVARRA IBARRA
TUBIANOSA
RENATO MANUEL
PANGILINAN ALAVADO
MARIANO LAXA
 Officers of the CC and MBRS of the
EXECOM

Jose Ma. SISON - Chairman

Arthur GARCIA - 1st V-Chmn & Chmn
of Mil Comm
Nilo TAYAG - Sec-Gen
Monico ATIENZA - 2nd Sec for Orgn &
Hd of the Dep of
Orgn
Fernando TAYAG- 2nd Sec for Educ &
Hd of the Dep of
Educ
Political Bureau (POLITBURO) Members:

Jose Ma. SISON Arthur GARCIA

Nilo TAYAG Monico ATIENZA
Fernando TAYAG Ibarra TUBIANOSA
Herminigildo CASIPE
29 Mar 1969
Comdr. Dante’s group of peasant
guerrillas joined SISON’s group and
established the New People’s
 ARMY. The NPA had 60 men with 35
firearms.

Jan 1970
The Communist controlled Kabataang
Makabayan has gathered strength and in a
show of force organized the violent
demonstrations which refers to as the “First
Quarter Storm”, rocked downtown Manila.
17 Feb 1972
Some 200 radical Christians
established Christians for Nat’l
Liberation (CNL) under a communist
leaning Catholic priest, Fr Edicio de la
TORRE of the society of the Divine
World.
Jul-Aug 1972
The CPP attempted to establish a grla
zone in the remote parts of Isabela and
Quezon, a shift from the traditionally HMB
based in Central Luzon and Southern
Tagalog. Government forces got wind of
an attempt to land 3,000 FAs from
Communist China aboard MV Karagatan.
B. Rural Phase Mass Mobilization (Post
Martial Law Period)

21 Sep 1972
Presdent Marcos placed the entire country
under martial law. Many party members
were apprehended but in general, the CPP
was able to preserve its forces.
Mar 1973
The MILF under Nur MISUARI, Jose
Maria SISON’s former associate,
launched a large scale offensive action.
Heavy fighting continued up to 1976.