Overdue Issue of Insurgency in the Philippines

First insurgency is basically defined as rebellion against authority. But for deeper understanding for its
definiton, Insurgency is a operational type of tactic limited to and conflated with rural guerrilla warfare. One
example of this is an authority recognized as such by United Nations. But take note, not all rebellions are
insurgencies. Insurgency is more likely used to describe as movement’s unlawfulness by virtue of not being
authorized by or in accordance with the law of the land and the use of it is neutral. An insurgency can possibly be
fought through counterinsurgency warfare and may also be opposed by measures in order to protect the population
and by political and economic actions of different kinds achieved at undermining the insurgents claims againts the
incumbent regime. The nature of insurgencies is an ambiguous concept. Our country is said to be socially and
geography fragmented because its terrain is nearly all mountainous and we have 7,100 islands within which live
more than one hundred tribal groups who speak approximately seventy different dialects and I do believe that these
has been one of the factors including those history of peasant revolts that is essential in understanding the conflicts
concerning insurgency which has faced and experienced by many filipino governments.

To have better enlightenment about the insurgency in the Philippines, It is helpful to first have a
discernment about the peasant rebellion that also known as “Huk” Rebellion, this assemblage took place in late
1940’s and during early 1950’s. The rebels resided in the specific part of Central Luzon which is the largest and the
most populated island here in our country, within that island they were mainly peasant farmers called “Kasama”
these farmers were used to divided their harvest with their landlords and this manner was the tenant or landlord
system and this was the root of the rebellion. Actually this system still causes unrest today. Moreover, After the
Second World War the relationship between the tenant and the landlord started to shift from a paternalistic one to a
more business like and exploitative one and the method of American farming started to make the local agriculture
more commercialised while farmers during that time started to utilize expensive insecticides and fertilizers which
tend them to become dependent on those money lenders they were dealing.

The Communist Party of the Philippines or the CPP has its armed wing which is known as the New
People’s Army or simply called as (NPA). CPP-NPA was started with just a small group of students and workers.
This communist insurgency is serve as a violent terrorist group that is founded by Jose Maria Sison, a university
lecturer who was profoundly influenced by the theoretical foundations of Marxism-Leninism. He was also
the chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (Marxist-Lenninist) from 1969. It
has fought against the Filipino government for more than 45 years. In the early days of the organisation, much of its
support came from the youth sector. The CPP also formed the Kabataang Makabayan (KM), the main focus of this
youth sector is on staging a peaceful protests. However we can affirm that CPP-NPA is in fact a terror organization,
because of its violent acts which sow and create a condition of widespread that tend to bring extraordinary fear and
panic among populace. Thats why our government has already declared that the Communist Party of the
Philippines-New People’s army is considered as a terrorist organization, the Department of Justice filed a petition
before the Manila Regional Trial court seeking to declare the CPP-NPA as terrorist citing Republic Act 9372 as The
Human Security Act of 2007. Senior Associate State Prosecutor Peter Ong is the one who signed the petition and he
accused the CPA-NPA of having an “evil plan of imposing a totalitarian regime”

Insurgency means rebellion, riot or mutiny by portion of the citizens of a State against the established
government. It also indicates armed struggle by dissident forces the established government in a state. We know for
a fact that CPP-NPA possesses insurgent actions , on the other hand 'Belligerent signifies a stage of the civil war in
which there are two contenders for power that can be placed on a platform and there is something like a state of war,
and not only civil conflicts. Despite conflicting opinions as to the exact definition of "insurgency" there is a
consensus that the insurgency can become belligerency. But the consideration of these insurgents specifically the
CPP-NPA group is still tentative to be belligerent because The concept of insurgency and belligerency are undefined
and are extremely subjective as it may depend on the state whether to grant recognition to a rebel group or not.
 I can say that Communism, Activism and Political economy were affliated to each other in the sense that
these three given words have something to do with politics and their practices aims for the betterment of the society.
First Communism is political and economic doctrine that aims to replace private property and a profit-based
economy with public ownership and communal control of at least the major means of production while Activism is
quite simply taking action to effect social change and it is often concerned with ‘how to change the world’ through
social, political, economic or environmental change. This can be led by individuals but is often done collectively
through social movements and lastly, Political Economy is the study of production and trade and their links with
custom, government and law, It also studies the use of economic theory, methods influence and develop different
social and economic systems wherein capitalism, socialism and communism is concerned. Political Economy also
analyzes how public policy is created and implemented.
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The most important insightul recommendaton for this is the need for a paradigm ship on both sides. without it the
peace talks will continue to be just a charade, and therefore, it would be more honest to drop them, rather than to
continue going around in circles, while just fooling ourselves and our people, and wasting precious tme, energy and
resources on an exercise in futilely. President should be aware that we are dealing here with, perhaps, the most
intractable insurgency, or at least the most intractable peace process, in the world today. As experience with CPP-
NPA has shown, the expected, and understandable, enthusiasm of a new administraton to talk peace with the
country’s major rebel groups will not be enough. Politcal will has to be matched by viable ways forward that, in
turn, will build confdence between the partes and the body politc whose support for the process and outcome is
essental. I do believe that peace is still possible to achieve as long as both of the opposing group will have this
cooperation in achieving peace for our country .