By Junex Doronio

MANILA — Despite the prospect of holding peace talks to end the longest Maoist insurgency in this part of Asia that has claimed thousands of lives and damaged properties, the National Security Council (NSC) on Wednesday assailed the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) after it came out with a statement for its 55th anniversary which indicates that it will still carry on their “protracted armed struggle” against the government.

NSC Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya took note of the CPP statement amid ongoing exploratory peace negotiations between the Marcos Jr. administration and the Maoist rebels.

“The Party outlines tasks to strengthen the NPA and the revolutionary armed struggle, and carry forward the revolutionary mass movement, and the people’s struggles against the US-Marcos regime,” the CPP said in its statement marking its 55th foundation anniversary.

To recall, the CPP was founded by Jose Maria Sison on December 26, 1968, which coincided with the birthday of Mao Zedong of China.

Sison died in the Netherlands where he sought refuge in 1987 after being freed from detention when the Cory Aquino administration took over.

The local communists have copied the doctrines of Mao Zedong like what they call “protracted people’s war by encircling the cities from the countryside.”

They also envisioned to topple down the government primarily through “armed struggle” and establishing what they called a “revolutionary coalition government” under the “direction of CPP.”

NSC Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya lamented that instead of calling to abandon armed struggle in its anniversary statement, the CPP doubled down on its commitment to pushing it.

“To make matters worse, the CPP in the same Anniversary Statement called the forthcoming ‘exploratory talks’ resulting from the Oslo Communique as ‘an additional battlefield to advance the national democratic cause’,” Malaya noted.

He pointed out: “The use of the word ‘battlefield’ is telling. This only means that the CPP has not abandoned its original position.”

Meanwhile, the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) also said on Wednesday that there are no more active guerilla fronts in the NPA (New People’s Army) which he said are “on their last leg.”

NTF-ELCAC executive director Undersecretary Ernesto Torres Jr. claimed that there are only 14 “weakened” guerilla fronts left in the communist armed group.

“Ensuring their total dismantling will be our prerequisite for us to initiate our next steps in ensuring peace,” Torres declared.

The NTF-ELCAC also claimed that six more guerilla fronts have been dismantled recently.

(El Amigo/MNM)