Choose Peace, Build the Nation: Why the Youth Must Reject Armed Struggle

The Filipino youth have always stood at the forefront of social change. Their passion for justice, equality, and national dignity is a strength that should be nurtured and protected. But passion alone is not enough, it must be guided by wisdom and a careful understanding of history.

This reflection comes in response to the July 9, 2026 statement of Maria Laya Guerrero, spokesperson of Kabataang Makabayan (KM) under the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, entitled "The Youth Will Energetically Carry Forward the Revolution Begun by Bonifacio Until Final Victory." In the statement, KM called on young Filipinos to continue the revolutionary struggle, drew inspiration from the Katipunan, promoted Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as its ideological guide, and urged large numbers of youth to join the New People's Army as the inheritor of the country's armed revolutionary tradition.

Such calls deserve serious reflection.

While these appeals invoke the names of Andrés Bonifacio and the Katipunan, the struggle against Spanish colonial rule belongs to a different historical era. Bonifacio fought against a foreign colonial government that denied Filipinos political rights and national sovereignty. The Philippines today, despite its many imperfections, remains a democratic republic where change can be pursued through elections, civic engagement, public discourse, and lawful political participation.

For more than five decades, the armed conflict involving the CPP-NPA-NDF has imposed heavy costs on communities across the country. Rural villages caught in the crossfire have experienced displacement, disrupted education, lost livelihoods, and stalled development. After decades of armed struggle, many of the social problems used to justify the conflict still persist.

The question therefore deserves to be asked: has war delivered the lasting transformation it promised?

Too often, it is the youth who pay the highest price - abandoned education, separation from families, and futures cut short by a conflict they did not create.

Former rebel Ariane Jane Ramos, also known as "Marikit" and now an officer of the Buklod Kapayapaan, National Federation of former rebels in the Philippines offers a different perspective shaped by lived experience inside the armed movement. Ramos has argued that poverty, lack of education, and inequality create the conditions where radicalization can flourish, but she emphasizes that these problems are not solved through violence.

Instead, she advocates investments in education, healthcare, sustainable development, and good governance as the real tools of empowerment. As she has repeatedly emphasized, "true freedom is not achieved through violence but through unity and belief in the radical act of peace."

Ramos has also reminded the public that citizens in a democratic society can continue criticizing government policies and demanding reforms without resorting to armed struggle.

The Philippines needs young leaders in classrooms, farms, businesses, local communities, civil society organizations, and public service, not in armed camps in the mountains.

Patriotism is not measured by one's willingness to fight a war. It is measured by one's willingness to build a nation.

War leaves wounds. Peace creates opportunities.

The task of this generation is not to inherit conflict, but to create a future where justice is pursued without violence and where development reaches even the most neglected communities.

The youth are not meant to become soldiers of an endless war. They are meant to become builders of peace, progress, and national renewal.