UNPOPULAR OPINION | It’s Quiet Down There

by Cleve Sta. Ana

Trigger Warning: Sexual Abuse

The underground left in the Philippines has never been shy about calling out abuses, especially those committed by state forces. On its propaganda platform, the Philippine Revolution Web Central, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has reported at least eight cases of alleged military-related rape since January 2024. Each of those incidents has been swiftly condemned, amplified, and politicized.

But when allegations of rape are made within their own ranks, the silence, in the words of the NTF-ELCAC in its statement, is deafening.

In a recent social media exposé, a former member of Kabataan Partylist (KPL) disclosed that she was sexually abused on three separate occasions since 2023, allegedly by fellow members of the organization. The survivor reportedly raised her concerns internally for years. Only after her story went viral online did the group issue a public statement offering help in filing charges. Even then, the statements were rather lukewarm.

This reflects a deeper hypocrisy in the movement, especially in the upper echelons of the CPP and the New People’s Army. They are quick to denounce others but slow to examine themselves. 

So, unpopular opinion: is it time to ask whether the CPP and the NPA should take action? Or at least ask why they are mum about the issue in the first place.

Historically, the CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), claim to operate under a supposedly strict moral code. Number 7 of the NPA’s “Eight Points of Attention” prohibits taking liberties with women, a somewhat restrained way of stating that sexual abuse is strictly forbidden. In an article that appeared in the August 21, 2021 issue of Ang Bayan, the CPP said that “Those who violate this are meted [out] with appropriate disciplinary action.”

For example, in one 2021 case in Negros, an NPA unit executed a man convicted of raping a minor after a trial by the so-called local revolutionary court. This and many other cases are often cited to portray the NPA and the CPP that leads it as morally superior to the institutions they seek to overthrow.

In October 2011, Human Rights Watch published an article titled “Philippines: Communist Rebels Target Civilians,” reporting that the NPA metes out punishments for “alleged criminal acts, such as rape and murder...”

So where is that same moral fire now?

It is fair and necessary to demand consistency. If they hold the military to account for every violation, they must also turn the mirror inward. Failing to publicly address this case undermines whatever credibility they claim to possess.

One cannot help but wonder if the CPP still exists in any meaningful, organized form. Is there still sound and competent leadership that genuinely looks after its own ranks? It certainly does not seem that way. If such leadership existed, they could have mobilized the thousands they claim to have at their disposal to address this issue swiftly. But they did not. And perhaps they just do not care.

The CPP cannot have it both ways. It cannot demand justice from the state while being silent—or worse, covering up—injustice against women within its own movement.

The survivors of abuse within KPL—and other legal democratic mass organizations, now being revealed to number at least 20—deserve more than institutional damage control and empty promises. They deserve the solidarity and accountability that the underground left claims to offer the oppressed. Given that both survivors and former members have publicly named the abusers within these organizations, should members of underground and aboveground groups demand that the CPP-NPA take action against them?

Because they refuse to act with the same urgency they demand from others, their slogans about human rights and women's liberation are exposed as hollow.