Oris said despite the relentless attacks of the enemy, the Communist NPAs were able to launch their own kind of agrarian program, which, according to him benefited “hundreds of thousands of people.”
The program decreased the land rent that the tillers have been paying the landlords. It put a stop to the practice of usury by the landlords, distributed lands to the farmers, increased the wage level of farm workers, and increased the prices of farm produce.
The announcement that Oris made on the 41st year of celebration was crucial. Oris declared that the revolutionary movement is “now in the position to advance from its current stage of strategic defensive towards the stage of strategic stalemate in the next five years.”
Troops in NPA formation during the anniversary program. (davaotoday.com photo by Jose Hernani)
He said present conditions “augur well for the revolutionary movement: the worsening crisis of the world capitalist system, said to be the worst since the Great Depression, means that imperialist economies are heading towards the worst. This will give momentum to victims of imperialist aggression to rise up and break free.”
He said imperialist nations will be hard put at sustaining their puppet governments in Third World countries, including the Philippines.
“Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and any President for that matter, will find it even harder to solve the problem as its imperialist master will have to impose harsher economic terms on Third World countries,” Ka Oris said. “The Philippine economy will be headed towards an even more difficult time. As discontent among the people increases, many will rise up and join the people’s war for liberation,” Oris explained.
“Under such condition, membership of the Communist Party will spread throughout the country,” Oris said.
Oris said that if their organization can have 200,000 party cadres “who can take the complicated tasks of advancing the people’s war,” “strategic stalemate” is possible in the next five years.
But he said they must be complemented by a series of tactical offensives by the NPA. “If possible, one platoon for every town or city to defend the gains enjoyed by the mass base of the locality,” he said.
Armed partisan units of the NPA, Oris also said, must also be established in urban areas. On this note, he admitted that they have started establishing such units. “They are capable of launching special operations to sabotage enemy military installations and punish personalities guilty of crime against the people.”
Apart from this, building the agrarian program is also one crucial requirement. A successful agrarian program, according to Oris, “will strengthen the party, the army and the people.”
To Oris, the hardships in waging a revolution for 41 years is “nothing, compared to the bright future that awaits ahead.” (Cheryll D. Fiel/davaotoday.com)
