𝗔𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆-𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗣𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀 𝗜𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗼𝗻

May 04, 2025

The campaign to end local communist armed conflict in the Philippines is nearing a historic turning point of no longer being abstract. It is, by all indications, within reach.

With 89 active guerrilla fronts dismantled since 2018 and only one weakened front in the Bicol region remaining, we are poised to close a violent chapter in our nation’s history. But dismantling an armed movement is only part of the equation. The harder task lies ahead, that is of sustaining the peace we have painstakingly won.

To consolidate our gains, we must institutionalize peace mechanisms at the local level. Local peace councils, barangay task forces, and grassroots monitoring units must become permanent features of governance. These mechanisms, paired with annual peace audits, will help ensure that government services are continuously aligned with the needs of vulnerable communities.

One of our biggest challenges now is dismantling the network of recruitment, support, and finance that allowed the insurgency to survive for decades. Though the armed component has been degraded, the ideological and logistical lifelines continue to attempt its regeneration. The CPP’s long-standing tactics of deception, particularly among the youth, remain active in urban centers, schools, and cyberspace.

The CPP-NPA-NDF’s efforts to radicalize and groom students into the armed rebellion remain relentless. These young minds, filled with passion and idealism, are too often exploited by narratives that glorify armed struggle. We must respond not with panic or persecution, but with programs that build youth resilience and empower them to be critical thinkers who champion peace by constructive activism, not violent extremism.

Follow the money

One of the more elusive enemies of peace is the funding that keeps the armed insurgency ideologies afloat. That is why the task force, through our International Engagement and Legal Cooperation Clusters, has been coordinating with the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Justice to help vet foreign grants intended for local NGOs. This vetting process ensures that international assistance goes to legitimate development partners, and not front organizations with ties to armed rebellion.

We urge our legislators to consider a legal framework that mandates due diligence for all foreign-funded NGO operations in the country. At the same time, we must build local civil society accreditation systems that validate the transparency and legitimacy of development organizations.

The truth is simple: funding the enemy, wittingly or unwittingly, only drags us backward. It’s time we turn off the Red taps.

Beyond the gun

Many so-called “legal democratic forces” that parade themselves with progressive platforms are, in truth, operators of ideological insurgency. These fronts are not mere political participants. They are the urban operators of a protracted war strategy, and their goals remain unchanged: to infiltrate our institutions, destabilize our society, and revive a dead revolution.

We expose them not because we seek to suppress activism, but because our former rebels and their erstwhile mass base themselves demand that we do. The most credible witnesses to the deception of these organizations are those who were once part of them and have since turned their backs on armed struggle. We, the task force, speak confidently only because we are backed by the lived truths of thousands of former members and cadres.

Yet, these truth tellers face their own unique challenge. Many of the legal democratic organizations bristle at the courage of their former comrades who now expose the secrets of their trade. The task force stands firmly behind our former rebels, and we assure them that they are not alone. They have the full support of the government behind them.

Safe Spaces, not battlefields of deception

In our effort to protect the youth from recruitment and ideological exploitation, we must make it clear: our universities are not the enemy. Institutions such as UP, PUP, La Salle, and many others have been deliberately targeted by the CPP-NPA-NDF—not because these institutions are weak, but because they are strongholds of academic freedom, critical thought, and youthful idealism, the very qualities that the insurgency covets.

Our task is not to antagonize our schools, but to collaborate with them. We envision a relationship with the academe built not on suspicion, but shared responsibility — to nurture empowered citizens who are immune to manipulation, who see through duplicity, and who can contribute to nation-building through democratic means.

BDP works

The Barangay Development Program (BDP) is one of the strongest arguments for a whole-of-nation approach to peace. Since 2021, over 4,800 barangays have received P36 billion worth of infrastructure, health, livelihood, and education support through the BDP. These are the very same barangays where the CPP-NPA used to build their guerrilla bases and mass organizations.

If the so-called legal front organizations truly stand for peace and development, why do they consistently refuse to acknowledge the BDP’s impact and call for the abolition of the taskforce? Easy: because they are cut from the same cloth and are the mouthpieces of the CPP-NPA-NDF in the urban centers.

Moving forward, we must secure multi-year funding for the BDP, shielded from political interference. We recommend developing a public-facing impact dashboard to ensure transparency, and building local capacities for project implementation to reduce dependency on central government.

Former rebels as partners

One of the most important frontlines in the task force's work is the reintegration of former rebels (FRs). Programs like the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program and the Amnesty Proclamation 404 are not just policies; they are promises. Promises to welcome back our countrymen who have chosen peace.

But reintegration is never instant. It is complex. Legal cases, psychological trauma, and social stigma continue to hound our FRs. Equally vital is institutionalizing trauma-informed reintegration models, where TESDA, DSWD, and LGUs are capacitated to offer not just skills training, but also psychosocial recovery and community reintegration with dignity.

We must look past our FRs' past, and present them with a future, one where they are not outcasts of war, but architects of peace. These are people who have risked everything to rejoin society. We must treat them not as liabilities, but as partners in nation-building.

Thousands of them are already doing the work: forming organizations, leading dialogues, building livelihoods, telling the truth. They are the strongest counter-insurgency campaigners this country has ever seen. The establishment of their national federation is a critical initiative that, with the help of our government, will allow them to chart their own path in becoming agents of peace for nation-building.

Our path ahead

2025 is a critical year, not because we are nearing the end of the CPP-NPA-NDF’s relevance, but because we are approaching a fork in the road. One path leads us backward--to complacency, and the rebranding and resurgence of insurgency in electoral disguise. The other path moves us forward--toward vigilance, unity, and sustained peace.

The task force, together with all our partners and communities, chooses the forward path. We are closer than ever to an insurgency-free Philippines. But to cross that final threshold, every Filipino must take part in exposing the lies, protecting the truth, uplifting the poor, and safeguarding peace.

Let us not let decades of progress slip through our fingers. Let’s keep building a country where violence no longer hides behind ideology, and where peace is not just the absence of war but the presence of justice, dignity, and shared hope.

Secretary Eduardo M Año

National Security Adviser

Vice Chairperson, NTF ELCAC