Philippine society persists as semicolonial and semifeudal. It is afflicted by foreign monopoly capitalism, domestic feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism. It is dominated chiefly by US imperialism, with the new imperialist power China trying to seize the West Philippine Sea. The basic exploiting classes are the comprador big bourgeoisie and the landlord class. The basic exploited classes are the proletariat and the peasantry. And the intermediate social strata are the middle bourgeoisie and the urban petty bourgeoisie.

Philippine society is in chronic crisis. This has rapidly worsened under the neoliberal policy regime. The socioeconomic and political crisis has become so grave that it has resulted in the escalation of oppressive and exploitative conditions and in the reappearance of Marcos-type state terrorism under the current Duterte regime. This regime seeks to destroy the revolutionary movement. But its glaring crimes of treason, tyranny, mass murder and plunder are rousing the people to rebel and join the revolutionary movement.

The Communist Party of the Philippines

Since its reestablishment on December 26, 1968 under the theoretical guidance of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, the Communist Party of the Philippines has proven to be effective as the revolutionary party of the proletariat leading the Filipino people’s new democratic revolution with a socialist perspective. It has become successful at building itself ideologically, politically and organizationally and overcoming all the strategic campaign of military suppression from the time of the Marcos fascist dictatorship to the present.

The CPP has developed central and lower organs of leadership capable of applying the theory of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism on the concrete conditions of Philippine society and in the practice of the Philippine revolution. Study courses of theoretical and political education are carried out at the the basic, intermediate and advanced levels for all Party cadres and members to raise the level of their revolutionary education at the rate that they are collectively and individually capable of.

The basic course ensures understanding of Philippine history, current circumstances, class struggle and revolution. The intermediate course involves comparative study of the Philippine revolution with other significant revolutions in the world. The advanced study course includes the study of the classical and current Marxist-Leninist-Maoist works in philosophy, political economy, social science, strategy and tactics, the international communist movement and the anti-imperialist solidarity of all peoples and nations of the world.

The CPP has set forth the general line of people’s democratic revolution with a socialist perspective and the general strategic line of protracted people’s war of encircling the cities from the countryside. While it considers and develops itself as the leading force of the Philippine revolution and instrument of the Filipino proletariat and people, it is also determined to wield and develop the New People’s Army as the embodiment of the worker-peasant alliance and as weapon for defeating the enemy and seizing political power and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines as the instrument for realizing and accelerating the unity of the broad masses of the people in their millions against the enemy.

The CPP has drawn its cadres and members from the revolutionary mass movement, the various types of mass organizations and institutions, the urban and rural communities, the different places and lines of work, the people’s army and the revolutionary organs of political power that constitute the people’s democratic government. As a result, the Party has grown in membership from a few scores in 1968 to tens of thousands at present and exists in all provinces of the Philippines.

The CPP is guided by the principle of democratic centralism. This means centralized leadership on the basis of democracy. The CPP has a nationwide system of organization that is deeply rooted among the toiling masses of workers and peasants. It has organs of leadership at the central, interregional, regional, provincial, district, municipal and village levels. And it is at the lead and core of the New People’s Army in the guerrilla bases and zones. It is the leading component in the local organs of political power.

The New People’s Army

The New People’s Army carries out the principal task of revolutionary armed struggle, which is the people’s war, for overthrowing the semicolonial and semifeudal ruling system and enabling the people’s democratic republic of the Philippines to arise under the leadership of the proletariat. The NPA follows the strategic line of encircling the cities from the countryside in order to accumulate armed and political strength before the nationwide seizure of political power in the cities.

The probable stages of the protracted people’s war are the strategic defensive, strategic stalemate and strategic offensive. The NPA is now in the stage of the strategic defensive within which the NPA makes use of the countryside as the wide area for maneuver, avails of the support of the peasantry and the rural proletariat. The NPA is now waging extensive and intensive guerrilla warfare and launching tactical offensives with a variety of units, including teams, squads, platoons and companies.

The NPA is determined to increase its weapons and its platoons and companies, make the enemy bleed from thousands of wounds and change the balance of strength towards the maturation of the strategic defensive and pave the way for the strategic stalemate in which the NPA shall carry out frequent tactical offensives by companies and battalions to further change the balance of forces. The aim is to build the battalions and regiments for the nationwide seizure of the cities in the strategic offensive.

The NPA is now operating in all rural regions and in 74 out of the 81 provinces of the Philippines. It has more than 110 guerilla fronts, consisting of guerrilla bases and zones. It uses the major tactics of concentration, dispersal and shifting. It conducts a war of fluid movement to frustrate and defeat the enemy’s so-called campaigns of intelligence-driven focused military operations. The military, police and paramilitary forces of the enemy are hated as instruments of oppression and butchery by the broad masses of the people and do not have the numerical strength to cover more than 10 per cent of the Philippine archipelago at any given time.

The people’s war is integrated with the agrarian revolution in order to gain the wide and deep support of the peasantry and the rural proletariat. The agrarian revolution consists of the sequence of the minimum and maximum land reform programs, depending on the strength of the mass movement, the CPP and NPA. The minimum program consists of rent reduction, control of interest rates and elimination of usury, raising of farm wages, improving prices of farm products at the farm gate and increasing production in agriculture and sideline occupation through rudimentary forms of cooperation among the peasants. The maximum program is the confiscation of land from the landlords and landgrabbing corporations and free distribution of the land to the peasants and farm workers.

The people’s war is also integrated with the building of the mass base under the leadership of the CPP and with the assistance of the NPA. The mass organizations of workers, peasants, youth, women, cultural activists and children are built. The local organs of political power are also built . They are formed according to the line of antifeudal united front, with the party of the proletariat relying mainly on the poor peasants and farm workers, winning over the middle peasants, neutralizing the rich peasants, taking advantage of the splits between the enlightened and despotic landlords and delivering the main blow against the despotic landlords.

The local organs of political power constitute the people’s democratic government and take charge of administration, land reform, production, social services, defense, settlement of disputes among the people, disaster relief and environmental protection. The NPA personnel who are in thousands are augmented by such reserve and auxiliary forces as the people’s militia units with members who are in the tens of thousands (at least a platoon in every village) and the self-defense units of mass organizations (except children below 18 years of age) with members who are in the hundred of thousands.

Under the direction of the CPP, the NPA has its own program of politico-military education and training in order to raise constantly the fighting spirit and skills of the Red commanders and fighters. NPA units are educated and trained to undertake combat duty, mass work, propaganda, production and the organization and training of the people’s militia under the local organs of political power and the self-defense units of the various mass organizations.

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP is the most consolidated formal organization for carrying out the national united front policy of the CPP. It follows and realizes the revolutionary class line of developing the basic alliance of the proletariat and the peasantry, winning over the urban petty bourgeoisie and the middle bourgeoisie, taking advantage of the contradictions among parties and factions of the reactionary classes of big comprador, landlords and bureaucrat capitalists and uniting the nation against foreign monopoly capitalism.

The NDFP has 18 allied organizations: the CPP, NPA, Revolutionary Council of Trade Unions, Katipunan ng mga Samahang Manggagawa (trade unions), Makabayang Kawaning Pilipino (government employees), Pambansang Katipunan ng Magbubukid (peasants), Malayang Kilusan ng Bagong Kababaihan (women) , Kabataang Makabayan (youth) , Katipunan ng Gurong Makabayan (teachers), Makabayang Samahan Pangkalusugan (health workers), Liga ng Agham para sa Bayan (scientists and technologists) , Artista at Manunulat para sa Sambayanan (artists and writers), Lupon ng Manananggol para sa Bayan (lawyers), Christians for National Liberation, Cordillera People’s Democratic Front Moro Resistance and Liberation Organization, Revolutionary Organization of Lumads (Mindanao tribes) and the Revolutionary Organization of Overseas Filipinos and their Families.

The NDFP is a comprehensive united front of patriotic and progressive organizations. But within each class or sector, it carries out the united front policy. It carries out all forms of struggle in order to arouse and mobilize the broad masses of the people in their millions to join and support the people’s democratic revolution through protracted people’s war. The main form of struggle it promotes is armed struggle and it works hard to develop the basic alliance of the proletariat and peasantry and win over the middle social strata. But it also promotes and engages in peace negotiations in order to propagate the program of the people’s democratic revolution and to call for social, economic and political reforms as the basis of a just and lasting peace.

The NDFP observes closely the contradictions among the parties and factions of the reactionary classes of big compradors, landlords and bureaucrat capitalists to determine the enemy to fight at every given time and to develop the broad united front against such enemy among the local reactionaries. The NDFP also observes closely the economic, political and military interventions of the US and other imperialist powers in order to unite the people against these and to make them vigilant to the probable ultimate that the current civil war can turn into a war of national liberation in case of foreign aggression by US imperialism or any other imperialist power.

The NDFP promotes the organization of overseas Filipinos for the purpose of uniting and mobilizing them in support of the people’s democratic revolution in their motherland. It carries out solidarity work along the anti-imperialist and democratic line by informing and encouraging foreign organizations and personages to support the Philippine revolution, cooperate with the organization of overseas Filipinos and develop partner relations with progressive or revolutionary organizations in the Philippines.

The NDFP engages in diplomatic and proto-diplomatic relations. It has relations with friendly governments which are anti-imperialist and progressive as well as with governments that have assisted in the holding of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations abroad. The work of the NDFP in developing proto-diplomatic and diplomatic relations is aimed at immediately informing the international community about the Philippine situation and the Philippine revolution and gaining international support for the revolutionary movement.

Prospects of the Philippine Revolution

The US imperialists and their rabid puppets have long wanted to destroy the revolutionary movement in the Philippines, especially since the founding of the NPA under the leadership of the CPP in 1969. But the Filipino people, especially the toiling masses, have not only preserved their revolutionary forces but have made them stronger nationwide from decade to decade, frustrating the 14-year Marcos fascist dictatorship and every US-designed strategic campaign of military suppression unleashed by every puppet president, from Marcos to Duterte.

The CPP and the entire revolutionary movement have prevailed over the campaigns of suppression and mass deception by US imperialism and the local reactionaries as well as over the setbacks inflicted on the socialist cause and national liberation movement by modern revisionism and by the neoliberal policy, state terrorism and wars of aggression launched by the US and other imperialist powers. The most important and most decisive factor in the advance of the Philippine revolution from victory to victory is the self-reliant implementation of the correct line of people’s democratic revolution through protracted people’s war under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.

The chronic crisis of the semicolonial and semifeudal ruling system continues to worsen rapidly, inflict on the people extreme conditions of oppression and exploitation and goad the broad masses of the people to join or support the revolutionary movement. The recrudescence of the open rule of terror like that of the Marcos fascist dictatorship in the form of the tyranny and state terrorism of the Duterte regime proves the decadent and moribund character of the ruling system.

The Filipino people are confident of prevailing over all the campaigns of counterrevolution and advancing the new democratic revolution towards the goal of socialism, The revolutionary forces are further growing in strength on the basis of their long experience and accumulation of knowledge. and skills in waging people’s war. They are favored by the rapid worsening of the crisis of both the domestic ruling system and the world capitalist system. The latter is now characterised by the accelerated strategic decline of US imperialism and the sharpening contradictions among the imperialist powers, especially the US and China.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the restoration of capitalism in the former socialist countries due to revisionist betrayal has resulted in the addition of two major imperialist powers, Russia and China, to the traditional imperialist powers headed by US imperialism and has further led to the rapid worsening of the crisis of global capitalism and the sharpening of inter-imperialist contradictions. The US and China used to be close partners in propagating and implementing neoliberalism. Now, they have become bitter political rivals and economic competitors.

The continuing upsurge of anti-imperialist and democratic mass struggles on a global scale against neoliberalism, fascism and wars of aggression is the consequence of the worsening crisis of global capitalism, the intolerable conditions of oppression and exploitation and the increasing inability of the imperialist powers to stabilize their own system. The widening and intensifying anti-imperialist and democratic mass struggles are the prelude to the resurgence of the world proletarian revolution.###