Military: CPP’s 50th year anniversary celebration failed to stir public interest

The 50th founding anniversary celebration of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which has the distinction of being the longest communist insurgency in Asia, has failed to generate interest and support from the public, the Armed Forces of the Philippines said Thursday.

Military public affairs chief Colonel Noel Detoyato was referring to the CPP anniversary which fell on December 26.

In marking their anniversary, the communists vowed to resist President Rodrigo Duterte's "policy" of fascist terror and tyranny. The New People's Army particularly cited its members' solid grasp of the requisites of widespread and intensive character of guerrilla warfare on top of building and deployment of its horizontal and vertical formations, forming guerrilla theaters composed of two to three guerrilla fronts, employing some elements of regular mobile warfare, mobilizing the masses for armed struggle, waging agrarian revolution and other mass campaigns in the countryside, among others.

The NPA is the armed wing of the CPP.

“They were not able to sustain big assemblies and organize masses They (communists) were forced to make it as a small gathering. Their braggadoccio type of holding their annual anniversary events were effectively reduced to internal affair,” Detoyato said.

“Their failure to generate big national and international attention shows that the overwhelming majority of the Filipino people don't care about the CPP or their founding anniversary,” he added.

Local news organizations reported about the CPP's 50th founding anniversary, while London-based tabloid Daily Mail, which has a circulation of 1.2 million copies on a daily basis, also ran a piece on the occasion of the communist movement's founding anniversary.

The Daily Mail is also the paper with the third largest circulation in London.

Still, Detoyato is convinced that the communists do not have the support of the public.

“The government and the Armed Forces were able to consolidate public opinion and public support to the democratic and duly constituted authorities of the government. The vast majority of the population in the countryside and in urban areas do not believe in the validity of the armed struggle as espoused by the CPP-NPA-NDF, much much less in the legitimacy of the communist alternative,” he said.

“Failure ang 50th year anniversary [celebrations] ng CPP,” he added.

In its 50th anniversary statement, the CPP said that the military is nowhere near defeating the communist rebels for good, saying that the deadline for eradicating the communist rebels has been constantly moving. — RSJ, GMA News