By Junex Doronio

MANILA — In a striking twist of fate, the Maoist armed struggle that began and intensified during the first Marcos regime is now seemingly waning and may finally fade away under the second Marcos administration.

This potential turning point was revealed by National Security Adviser (NSA) Eduardo Año on Tuesday, August 13, 2024, during a dinner dialogue with select media executives.

“We are confident that we can end the armed component. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has set a target of December 2024, and it’s only August,” Año said.

He noted that the New People’s Army (NPA) guerrilla fronts are now down to five, citing the first semester report of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

It is worth recalling that in July, AFP Chief General Romeo Brawner Jr. reported there were only seven active guerrilla fronts in the country. Of these seven, Año said, two are already being prepared for official announcement by government and military units, as well as the concerned local government units (LGUs).

Earlier, NTF-ELCAC Executive Director Ernesto Torres Jr. noted that there were 89 active NPA guerrilla fronts in 2018.

“If they no longer pursue armed struggle but continue their activities, that’s okay too. Without the NPA in the organization, even if they keep talking, it’s like a rotary club—just discussions without any violence, which is what we want. At the same time, we’re aggressively addressing the root causes of the armed conflict through good governance, which is why the NTF-ELCAC exists,” Año explained.

Jose Maria Sison founded the CPP on December 26, 1968, inspired by the revolution in China led by Mao Zedong. The goal was a protracted national democratic revolution, encircling the cities from the countryside and eventually leading to a revolutionary coalition government under the CPP after passing through three stages of armed struggle.

Political pundits told Maharlika NuMedia that the death of Sison in the Netherlands, where he sought refuge in 1987 after being released from detention by then-President Corazon Aquino, may have contributed to the decline of the Maoist movement. Sison passed away on December 16, 2022, at the age of 83 in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Año also denied allegations that the government is engaging in red-tagging or labeling people as members of the CPP-NPA.

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