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Philippine Rebel Predicts Wider Insurgency
WSJ ^ | 10 Sep 2009 | VLADIMIR GUEVARRA

Posted on 09/09/2009 8:17:21 PM PDT by BGHater

Communist Group's Founder Says Ranks of Guerrillas to Grow

More than 40 years after founding the Communist Party of the Philippines, a former literature professor who has long stayed outside his homeland says the party's military wing plans to significantly increase its armed capabilities in the next three years.

Jose Maria Sison, who was imprisoned in 1977 by then-President Ferdinand Marcos and freed in 1986 by Corazon Aquino shortly after "People Power" put her in power, says the insurgency he seeded with Maoist ideas intends to use sympathizers to recruit 3,000 to 5,000 new guerrillas in impoverished rural areas.

He maintained that based on their experience, small squads of the New People's Army are able to do organization work and recruitment in targeted villages, and platoons are capable of assaults to gather more firearms from Philippine soldiers and police stations.

In Mr. Sison's view, there are currently about 6,000 rebels in the NPA. That is close to an estimate by the Philippine military, which put the number of guerrillas at 5,239 at the end of 2008.

Philippine intelligence officials today still regard the NPA as the nation's biggest security threat. Its ambition to overthrow the Philippine government and replace it with a Maoist state, they say, surpasses that of a better-equipped Islamist insurgency in the south of the country, which hopes to carve out a localized Muslim homeland.

Jose Maria Sison, founder of the Philippine Communist Party, is shown with his wife Julie de Lima at a 2007 press conference at his headquarters in the Dutch city of Utrecht. He has lived in the Netherlands since 1987.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: communist; insurgency; philippines

1 posted on 09/09/2009 8:17:22 PM PDT by BGHater
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To: BGHater

Why couldn’t this communist dirt bag have been the one stabbed to death instead of Theo Van Gogh?


2 posted on 09/09/2009 8:19:07 PM PDT by vladimir998
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To: BGHater

FReedom is on the way down in so many parts of the world that its a very sad time. Heck Newsweek said we’re all socialists and now Thomas Freidman feels comfy enough to declare his support for a China-style government.

Make no mistake, freedom is NOT winning so far.


3 posted on 09/09/2009 8:23:04 PM PDT by GeronL (http://libertyfic.proboards.com ............. http://tyrannysentinel.blogspot.com)
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To: BGHater

Wonder why there are no NPA rebels in Siquijor...maybe there are afraid of the Wak Wak’s...witches..


4 posted on 09/09/2009 10:53:25 PM PDT by bushpilot1
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