26 years ago in the middle of Lanao del Sur jungle (Guerilla Camp Ariel) that a Military Conference was called for by the former Central Mindanao Region of the then Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) attended by military and Party cadres that later declared to split from the CPP’s armed-wing New People’s Army (NPA) and called as the Revolutionary Peoples’ Army (RPA). This conference followed by more conferences among organs and formations that developed and strengthened the ideological and political framework, strategies and direction of the new Revolutionary Party.

It was also a decision to call for the conference on this date (March 18) to remember the martyrs of the Jabbidah Massacre (March 18, 1968) where the radical movement for the Right to Self Determination of the Bangsamoro inspired. All in all, it was a review of the orientation, conduct, principles, and contexts and among other important circumstances for the Armed Struggle.

It has been 26 years since we pursued an active defense position and Politico-Militar framework maintaining Armed Struggle as integral to all forms of struggles in our Revolutionary Mass Movement. We’ve withstood 26 years of left and right assaults and witch-hunts and several lives have been offered by Comrades in line of this Revolutionary duty. Our highest salute to our Martyrs.

Aside from the continuing militarist solution of the Philippine government to the democratic assertions of the Peoples, masses and the whole working class in the country nowadays, we are also faced with a Pandemic that provoked the Philippine Government to declare Health Emergency and State of Calamity nationwide. One can notice in the prior media statements by the Duterte government as if everything is under control and the government is very much ready to face COVID 19 until a local transmission and testing started recording more than 10 deaths and hundreds of under observation persons (as of 1^st week of March 2020). It is not the public that panicked but it was the government’s actions that first led the people to panic. The militarist response, instead of mobilizing the whole medical and health experts, responders and civil society advocates to act together accordingly, exposed how unprepared the government is. With the limited availability of the Testing Kits and medical action plans in the majority areas, the locking down or the more friendly term “community quarantine” have put the people, the workers and the masses at the mercy of their employers, politicians and the generals. The COVID 19’s impact to the Philippines exposed how poor the Philippine Health System is and how the government neglected basic social services like health, transportation, housing and others. To sum up, this pandemic made it easier for the Duterte government to realize Martial Law or State of National Emergency

The same approach is used to end insurgency and Indigenous People’s resistance to development aggressions in their Ancestral Domains. Instead of deeply and seriously answering the roots of insurgency and people’s resistance, in the guise of civilian-led Whole of Nation Approach (EO 70) it militarized the countryside and Ancestral Domains, the government bureaucracy and even the humanitarian works and mechanisms and red-tagged political and mass activist leaders and open organizations.

One can truly see that the evolution of this virus is the result of the capitalist accumulation destroying the balance of nature for profit and dominance. The scale and nature of this virus is a manifestation of how graved the damage is to such balance and how urgent the need for coherent, appropriate and ecological alternatives is in our communities. Such alternatives are only possible with an eco-socialist paradigm!

In this trying times the more so that we, Comrades, have to stand with the oppressed and the working class more than ever. They are the most vulnerable and so are we. But we must not forget that we have to face this crisis together and as we leap forward it must advance peoples’ and working class interests. We believe that our efforts should strengthen the solidarity of peoples and working class at the community and massive scale.

RPA mobilized and shall mobilize all of our Comrades in the Revolutionary Partisan Units, Regular Mobile Guerilla Units, Allied forces and Local Militias to organize and mobilize the masses and the working class that we can reach for their democratic rights amidst the crisis. Like a tree, a tree alone is not a forest. Then we should be the trees standing together to form a forest that could hold floods, famine and pandemics. Let us incorporate more than ever that environment and humanity should live together and as revolutionaries it is our duty to defend the oppressed among humanity and the environment.

On our 26^th year, we would like to reiterate our commitment to our Unilateral Ceasefire to all elements of the Communist Party of the Philippines - New People’s Army – National Democratic Front of the Philippines (CPP-NPA-NDFP) that we declared in 2018. The same with the Ceasefire Agreement our Party, the Revolutionary Workers Party – Mindanao (RPM-M) signed into with the Arroyo administration as our commitment to the Peoples and communities.

To all revolutionaries around the world, the call for us to be felt in the slums, working places, communities, neighborhoods, villages, everywhere are more than urgent. Let us strengthen our solidarity as we build our future today!

Revolutionary Salute to all of us in the RPA!
Revolutionary Salute to our Revolutionary Martyrs!
Ever Onward Comrades in all forms and lines of Our Socialist Revolution!
Defeat Capitalist Viruses! Defend Humanity, Environment and Save Our Lives!
Salute to us All!

National Operational Command (NOC)
Revolutionary Peoples’ Army (RPA)
Camp Cielo, Mindanao, Philippines
March 18, 2020