Why is the CPP so afraid of the NAP-UPD?

It is hardly surprising that the Party and its so-called “legal democratic” mouthpieces are howling at Memorandum Circular No. 83, which institutionalizes the National Action Plan for Unity, Peace and Development (NAP-UPD) 2025-2028. The CPP loves a monopoly on “peace” talk. The moment government rolls out a concrete, whole-of-nation roadmap, they panic. Galit sila kasi nabisto na ang kanilang lumang diskarte—pa-victim sa harap, recruiter sa likod.

In contrast to the Party’s disinformation, this Plan digs at the roots—hindi lang ito drawing like the many iterations of the CPP’s five-year plan or ten-point agenda. The NAP-UPD devotes an entire cluster to poverty reduction, livelihood and employment, another to basic services, and another to local-government empowerment. It mobilizes 12 government clusters—education, health, land reform, infrastructure, even culture—so that barangays once held hostage by the NPA finally get roads, water, clinics, and farm support. That is the direct opposite of “binabalewala ang ugat ng tunggalian.” The truth is, the CPP fears losing its favorite talking points because the masses actually feel government services reaching them.

The Party calls the whole-of-nation approach a “recycled counter-insurgency strategy.” Look who’s talking. Kung may tunay na recycled, it is the CPP’s “rectification” campaign—isang luma at hungkag na script na desperado nitong nilalako sa masang Pilipino, lalo na sa kabataan, para palitawin na may sigla pa ang “protracted people’s war.” Six years under Executive Order No. 70 have proven otherwise: 89 guerrilla fronts are now down to one weakened front, and 9,272 barangays have been cleared of CPP-NPA-NDF influence and are enjoying projects under the Barangay Development Program. The dinosaur here is the CPP, not the Plan.

In their angry press releases, the Party loves to brand government efforts “oppressive.” Yet it is the CPP-NPA that keeps threatening communities through euphemisms like “revolutionary taxation” and “permit to campaign.” The harmonized programs now drying up that extortion racket expose their white-area operators—kaya sila parang asong ulol na kahol nang kahol.

The NAP-UPD keeps local peace engagements front and center, complete with a transformation program for former rebels and affected communities. What it rejects is the revolving-door, Oslo-style negotiations the Party exploited for hotel junkets while the NPA kept shooting. Kung gusto nila ng kapayapaan, hindi sarado ang pinto—mapagmatyag lang tayo sa panibagong panloloko.

Right now, the CPP-NPA is training its literal and figurative guns on their former cadres who are organizing and speaking up. Thousands of former rebels are forming federations and people’s organizations across the country, telling communities the hard truth about CPP recruitment. The Party calls them “basura” and “traydor,” hoping to chain them to silence. But the government has made it policy to protect and empower former rebels as partners in development—and that single commitment, not any government bullet, is what keeps the CPP awake at night.

Bottom line: The CPP-NPA-NDF clique is terrified because the NAP-UPD renders their 56-year-old playbook obsolete. It drains their mass base with real services, undermines their narrative with factual community gains, and gives voice to the very people they once coerced. They can demonize the Plan or scream “red-tagging” all day; the Filipino public, sawa na sa lumang litanya, can see who’s truly committed to unity, peace, and development.