Pinoy Weekly | CPP declares unilateral ceasefire, NDFP allied organizations hold marches

Posted: 19 Dec 2013 09:04 PM PST Hundreds of members of revolutionary underground organizations under the National Democratic Front converged in Manila to celebrate the Communist Party of the Philippines’ (CPP) 45th anniversary. (Boy Bagwis) The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) declared a unilateral ceasefire that will take effect on December 24 until midnightof December 26, and on December 31 until midnight of January 2, 2014. The ceasefire declaration was issued in solidarity with the Filipino people’s traditional observance of Christmas and New Year holidays, the group said in a statement posted in their website. In accordance of its 45th anniversary, meanwhile, hundreds of members of revolutionary underground organizations under the National Democratic Front (NDF) held lightning rallies in Manila and Quezon City. One rally, attended by some 500 members, was held in the busy Manila streets of Avenida and Recto Avenue. In Quezon City, members of Pambansang Katipunan ng mga Magbubukid, a revolutionary peasant organization allied with the NDFP, held its own in Cubao, which was bustling with Christmas shoppers. The CPP said that the ceasefire will also allow the Filipino people and its revolutionary forces to join mass celebrations to mark its anniversary on December 26. The ceasefire will also cover the regional commands of the NPA in the Eastern Visayas, Panay Island, Central Visayas and Negros Island, whose forces were mobilized to assist the people in the areas devastated by the recent supertyphoon Yolanda. “During the aforementioned periods, all commands of the NPA and the people’s militia shall cease and desist from carrying out offensive operations against the armed units and personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Philippine National Police (PNP) and all other paramilitary forces attached to the Government of the Republic of the Philippines,” the group said, adding that they will be in active defense mode during the declared ceasefire. The groups who held lightning rallies in Manila and Quezon City called for the Filipino people to join the people’s war being waged by the NPA to overthrow the existing political and economic system that, it said, has only brought the majority of Filipino people intense poverty and exploitation. Photos of the lightning rally: Boy Bagwis and Macky Macaspac: (Boy Bagwis) (Macky Macaspac) (Macky Macaspac) (Boy Bagwis) Members of revolutionary mass organizations hold up images of the pillars of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. (Boy Bagwis) Lightning protest in Cubao, Quezon City led by the revolutionary organization of peasants, Pambansang Katipunan ng mga Magbubukid (PKM), to celebrate CPP’s 45th anniversary. (Macky Macaspac)

Video | Revolutionaries take to streets to mark CPP’s 45th year Posted: 19 Dec 2013 06:35 PM PST Around 300 members of revolutionary groups staged a lightning rally from Carriedo St. to Recto Ave. in Manila on December 19 to mark the 45th anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). The CPP was established on December 26, 1968, and leads one the longest-running communist insurgencies in the world. The revolutionaries hailed the “advance” of the Philippine revolution, the establishment of a “democratic people’s government” in the countryside, and said that the seizure of political power by revolutionary forces, led by workers and peasants (symbolized by the hammer and sickle) was the only way to solve poverty.