There was much stirring that one could feel the infectious excitement that permeates the entire camp set up by the New People’s Army (NPA). Comrades were hanging red flags and banners on a make-shift stage while another group was doing a final rehearsal of the numbers to be performed during the cultural program.
From the kitchen floats the smell of sumptuous delicacies being cooked – sautéed ampalaya (bitter gourd) and crablets, dried fish, rice cakes, glutinous rice balls simmering in coconut milk and muscovado sugar and boiled sweet corn. A feast for sharing. Of course, there was the team ever ready to secure and defend the camp just in case unwanted “guests” crash the celebration.
Such scenes were repeated in different parts of the country as comrades, Red fighters and the masses joyously celebrated the 56th Founding Anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) last December 26, 2024. In urban areas, in the revolutionary mass bases, and even overseas, different forms of celebrations were held commemorating the anniversary of the CPP.
Amidst the attacks by the brutal forces of the enemy, there was indeed much to celebrate. The agrarian revolution being waged by the comrades and masses continues to bear fruit: from the lowering of land rent, an increase in harvest share, to free land distribution thus alleviating the dire situation of the peasants and farmworkers. The cooperation among the people, the Party and the people’s army is ever stronger.
Unity and study mark celebrations
According to initial reports from Ang Bayan, collective study and unity with the masses marked the Party anniversary celebrations.
In one guerrilla front in the Cordillera, the comrades initially thought the celebration would not push through due to the series of typhoons that devastated the area with ricefields destroyed and rice harvests ravaged. Even worse, the reactionary soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) impeded the movements of the peasant masses especially trips to the town center to buy food and house supplies.
But the masses won’t be denied their celebration. As the alarm device in the woods set up by comrades sounded signalling movement, comrades saw people from the barrios arriving. Group leader Mang Cesar, one of the barriofolks stated: “Mga kasama! Para masiguro ang ating seguridad, hindi na muna namin kayo inimbita sa aming mga bahay. Kami na ang pumunta sa inyo upang ipagdiwang ang anibersaryo ng Partido.” (Comrades, to ensure our security we did not invite you to our houses. Instead, we came to you so we could hold the Party anniversary celebration.)
Through different forms of cultural creativity such as skits, poems, songs and short stories, interpretative dance, shadow plays, they presented the worsening economic crisis experienced by the Filipino people, the intensifying conflict between Marcos and Duterte, and US imperialist exploitation of the Philippines. The program depicted the domination of political dynasties over the country’s wealth, while deliberately depriving the people of social services.
More celebrations
In South Quezon Bondoc Peninsula, members of the CPP and the NPA-Apolonio Mendoza Command held a “kapehan” or discussion over a cup of coffee with the peasant masses discussing the national situation and the situation of the peasants in the area. They also paid tribute to the martyrs of the Quezon Bondoc Peninsula. Prior to the “kapehan,” the Red Army collectively read and studied the anniversary statements of the CPP and the Regional Party Committee calling for rectification and the advance of the national democratic revolution.
In the public centers of Antipolo, Rizal, the NDFP-Rizal hung colorful streamers and posters and eye-catching designs celebrating the Party’s anniversary. Leaflets calling the youth and the masses to join the NPA were also distributed.
In Manila, allied organizations of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) held a lightning rally on December 2, 2024 at Recto Avenue to celebrate the CPP’s Anniversary. The rallyists called on the Filipino people to advance the national democratic revolution amid the worsening poverty and the ruling classes’ intensifying political conflicts.
NDFP allied organizations and international friends, parties, movements, institutions and organizations sent greetings of solidarity to the Party.
The Filipino people are facing an oppressive and exploitative enemy driven by greed and power with a brutal army and arsenal of destructive weapons at its disposal.
But as the CPP Founding Chairperson Comrade Jose Maria Sison stated, the Filipino people’s democratic revolution is invincible. It is a just war and it is imperative to fight for and achieve national liberation and democracy against the three evils – foreign monopoly capitalism, domestic feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism in a rapidly rotting semicolonial and semifeudal society.
So long as the aforesaid three evils dominate and afflict the Filipino nation, the ground remains fertile for the growth and advance of the people’s democratic revolution.
