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Philippine Maoist rebels dismiss Manila’s goal of ending insurgency by 2025, say they are ready to keep fighting
- Since the start of the year, the New People’s Army has clashed with government forces at least 10 times in Rizal, Batangas and Iloilo
- President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr declared in December there were ‘no more active’ NPA bases in the country
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Philippine insurgents have again clashed with soldiers in remote parts of the country amid conflicting claims by the government about a lull in hostilities.
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President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr declared in December that there were “no more active” bases of the New People’s Army (NPA) in the country. Since the start of the year, however, the Maoist insurgents had engaged in gunfights with government forces at least 10 times in Rizal province, and the cities of Batangas, Negros Occidental, Bohol and Iloilo.
Rebel leaders say the insurgency is growing stronger, contrary to the government’s claims.
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The long-running conflict has claimed more than 60,000 lives on both sides since the start of the insurgency in 1969, according to the Philippine Army.
While the military believes the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist NPA peaked during the 1980s, the rebels claim they expanded their fighting capacity in the following years, carrying out offensives throughout the country’s major island groups.
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