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

The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict is not surprised that the Communist Party of the Philippine and its 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 the government presents a concrete, whole-of-nation roadmap, the Party and its legal mouthpieces panic. Galit sila kasi nabisto na ang kanilang lumang diskarte—pa-victim sa harap, recruiter sa likod.

In contrast to the CPP's disinformation, the task force's Plan digs at the roots—hindi lang ito drawing like the many iterations of the CPP's 5-year plan or 10-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 are reaching them.

The CPP 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, laluna sa kabataan, para palitawin na may sigla pa ang "protracted people’s war." Six years of Executive Order No. 70 have proven otherwise: 89 guerrilla fronts are now down to one weakened guerrilla front and 9,272 barangays cleared of the CPP-NPA-NDFP's influence and currently enjoying projects and services from the Barangay Development Program. The CPP is the dinosaur here, not the Plan.

In their angry press releases, the CPP-NPA-NDFP love to tag the task force not only as lead agency but “lead oppressor.” Yet the task force, by law, is merely the integrator of basic services and localized solutions, not an armed unit. Ang tunay na nananakot ay ang CPP-NPA which continue trying to extort under euphemisms like "revolutionary taxation" or "permit to campaign." The task force’s harmonized programs have begun to dry up their extortion racket and expose their white-area operators. Kaya sila parang asong ulol na kahol ng kahol ngayon.

The NAP-UPD keeps local peace engagements as a standing line of effort, complete with a transformation program for former rebels and communities. What it is vigilant about is the revolving door of Oslo-style negotiations that the CPP exploited for hotel junkets while the NPA kept shooting.

At the moment, the CPP-NPA are training their literal and figurative guns at former rebels who are organizing themselves and speaking up. Thousands of former rebels now organized as federations and people’s organizations across the country are telling their communities the hard truth about CPP recruitment. The Party brands them “basura” and “traydor,” hoping to chain them to silence. But, as the Plan expressly states, the State will protect and empower former rebels as partners in development. That policy statement, 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 people they once coerced. The CPP's mouthpieces can demonize the task force, denigrate the NAP-UPD or scream “red-tagging” all day; the Filipino public, sawa na sa lumang litanya, continues to see who is truly committed to unity, peace and development.