ON THE BRILLIANT VICTORY OF THE NPA AND MORE TACTICAL OFFENSIVES 
TO COME

By Jose Maria Sison

National Democratic Front of the Philippines Chief Political 
Consultant

30 June 2000



On the basis of news reports, I think that the New People's Army 
has won a brilliant victory in the battlefield by ambushing 
several military vehicles, capturing a significant number of 
firearms and killing the commanding officer of the 502nd Infantry 
Brigade, the executive officer of the 45th Infantry Battalion, 
several sergeants and other military personnel of the Philippine 
Army.

I presume that the leadership of the revolutionary movement, the 
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines, and 
the masses of workers and peasants are celebrating the victory and 
congratulating the unit of the New People's Army for carrying out 
its tactical offensive.

Since its founding in 1969, the NPA has been engaged in a 
protracted people's war for national liberation and democracy. It 
has followed the leadership of the Central Committee of the 
Communist Party of the Philippines and implemented the current 
orders of its operational command.

The leadership of the revolutionary movement is in the 
Philippines, not in the Netherlands. The claim of the reactionary 
officials that the NPA takes its directives from anybody abroad is 
false and ridiculous. The reported complaint of the Armed Forces 
of the Philippines against Ka Luis Jalandoni and myself is a 
complete sham.

According to its publications, the Central Committee of the CPP 
has ordered the intensification of tactical offensives by the NPA 
because the Estrada regime has been escalating the oppression and 
exploitation of the people. The most grievous crimes of the regime 
include the sellout of national sovereignty and the national 
patrimony to foreign monopolies, the accelerated exploitation of 
the working people and the middle social strata and the unleashing 
of counterrevolutionary violence against the people.

According to the NPA's Benito Tesorio Command - Isabela Front, the 
502nd IB is notorious for protecting big loggers, carrying out 
military campaigns and committing human right violations on a wide 
scale. These violations include the torture and extrajudicial 
killing of suspected revolutionaries and the bombardment and 
displacement of entire communities.

The military convoy headed by Col. Josefino Manayao, commanding 
officer of the 502nd Infantry Brigade, encroached upon the 
territory of the people's democratic government and was engaged in 
combat and psywar operations.

It is simply foolish of the reactionary officials to claim that a 
huge military force, armed to the teeth, was on a medical mission. 
In ambushing the military convoy, the NPA obviously acted in 
defense of the people and territory of the people's democratic 
government against the marauders.

Having expanded and consolidated its mass base in the course of 
the Second Great Rectification Movement, the NPA is in a position 
to intensify its tactical offensives against the priorly 
escalating military campaigns of the reactionary armed forces.

The renewed strength of the revolutionary forces and the people 
has come on time for them to combat an isolated corrupt and brutal 
regime under conditions of a rapidly worsening crisis of the 
ruling system. This crisis inflicts terrible suffering on the 
people but at the same time engenders mass resistance.

By their own pronouncements and deeds, the NPA and other 
revolutionary forces have made clear that they are fighting the 
ruling system above all for the Filipino people's cause of 
national liberation and democracy. At the same time, they are 
fighting in concert with all political allies against a common 
enemy.

They are also availing of excellent opportunities presented by the 
enemy's overconcentrating 60 percent of its armed forces against 
the Moro people and spreading thinly the rest of his troops in all 
other parts of the Philippines.

As an analyst of the Philippine situation, I venture to predict 
that more tactical offensives are forthcoming from the New 
People's Army against the US-directed Estrada regime.#