The New People's Army was established on March 29, 1969, following the split of the old Communist

Party (Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas-1930) into Lava and Guerrero factions. The 1960s saw a
resurgence in radical ideology, following the establishment of Kabataang Makabayan and the
emerging popularity of Mao Zedong Thought as an advancement of ideological Marxism-Leninism. In
1966, Jose Maria Sison, under the nom de guerre Amado Guerrero, wrote Rectify Errors and Rebuild
the Party!, a treatise which criticized the old Lavaite leadership and emphasized the need to follow
Mao Zedong Thought to foster re-establishment.[20] The conflict continued until December 26,
1968, when the Communist Party of the Philippines was formally re-established along Maoist lines,
and the entire issue was termed the First Great Rectification Movement.

After re-establishing the CPP, Guerrero set about to establishing the People's Army. KM cadres in
Tarlac had contacted Guerrero and linked him with Bernabe Buscayno, a former member of the older
Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan. Relations were established and the New People's Army was
formally founded on March 29, in continuity with the previous Hukbalahap.[21][non-primary source
needed] At the time the NPA only had 60 armed fighters.[22]

The NPA was immediately tasked with the role of implementing the CPP's program for a People's
Democratic Revolution. In the Declaration of the New People's Army, Amado Guerrero outlined the
following as its main tasks:[1]: 113–117

The New People's Army Must Engage in Party Rebuilding

The New People's Army Must Carry Out Agrarian Revolution, Build Rural Bases, and Advance the
Armed Struggle

The New People's Army Must Build the National United Front

The NPA quickly spread alongside organizational work of the CPP. By 1972, it had established 735
barrio organizing committees and 60 barrio organizing committees, governing an estimated 400,000
people all over the country.[23] The CPP used the NPA to establish barrio organizing and
revolutionary committees, which served as instruments in administering the people's revolutionary
government. Barrio organizing committees were established to lower land rent, eliminate usury, and
ensure the "annihilation of enemy troops and the elimination of landlord despots, enemy spies, and
such bad elements as cattle rustlers, extortionists, robbers, murderers, arsonists, and the like."[23]
Once established, barrio revolutionary committees replaced the BOC to formally establish the area as
a stronghold of the revolutionary government. The NPA at the time had 72 squads of 800 regulars
armed with weapons.

Over the next decade, the NPA expanded in response to Ferdinand Marcos and the declaration of
martial law in the Philippines. The CPP and the NPA were successfully able to establish themselves in
the countryside, reaching a mass base of over one million people, with 1,000 fighters armed with
high-powered rifles by 1977[22] By 1981, the NPA began engaging in tactical offensives involving
company-sized units emerged, particularly in the Southern Mindanao region. By 1983, the NPA
fielded 5,000 high-powered rifles. By 1988, it had 10,000 high-powered rifles, with 7,000 inferior
firearms. It operated in 60 guerrilla fronts across 63 provinces of the Philippines.[22]

Changes in tactics and Kampanyang Ahos

The momentum gained in the 1980s was also given to multiple setbacks. Changes in strategy and
internal conflicts within the CPP resulted in ideological, political, and organizational losses for the
CPP–NPA–NDF. The CPP devised a plan called a "strategic counteroffensive" (SCO) with the aim of
"leaping over" to a higher stage of armed revolution and quickly win the revolution. The SCO
program led to "regularization" of units, urban partisan actions, peasant uprisings, and an
insurrectionist concept of "seizing opportunities".[22]

From 1981, the NPA enjoyed strategic gains in Mindanao and was able to consolidate its forces there.
However, the Mindanao Commission adopted a strategy of designating areas as Red (where military
struggle was applicable) or White (where political struggle and insurrection was applicable) along
with the SCO program.[24]

Problems in discipline also emerged during this time, as well as deterioration of the NPA's ability to
conduct mass work. These ideological and organizational shortcomings, coupled with the Corazon
Aquino administration's counter-insurgency program, Oplan Lambat Bitag, managed to severely
harm the NPA and the CPP as a whole.[24][25]: 144

In 1989, the NPA assassinated U.S. Army Colonel James "Nick" Rowe, founder of the U.S. Army
Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) course. Colonel Rowe was part of a military
assistance program to the Philippine Army. The NPA asserts that this made him a legitimate military
target.[26][27]

Second Great Rectification Movement

Main article: Second Great Rectification Movement

By 1991, the CPP central committee had assessed the mistakes of the previous decade and carried
out the Second Great Rectification Movement from 1992 until declaring a success in 1998. The
Second Great Rectification Movement, however, saw splits in the CPP ranks, with rejectionists such
as Filemon Lagman, Romulo Kintanar, Etta Rosales, and others leaving the CPP and forming their own
groups based on ideological differences. The Alex Boncayao Brigade, notorious for its partisan
activities, left the CPP with Lagman and formed the Revolutionary Proletarian Army.

In 1998, the GRP and NDFP signed the Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights and
International Humanitarian Law (CAHRIHL), which establishes rules of engagement for both parties in
accordance to international rules of war.[28] The NPA, as a signatory to CAHIRHL, is bound to
international agreements stated in the Geneva Convention and thus follows rules set for prisoners of
war,[29] command-detonated explosives,[30] and similar rules of engagement.

Since then, rejectionists have been met with reprisals. Lagman was ambushed in the University of
the Philippines in 2001 by armed gunmen and slain.[31] The NPA has admitted to killing Kintanar in
2003.[32] Other rejectionists, like Rosales and Walden Bello continue as members of the social-
democratic Akbayan party. Ricardo Reyes is active in local politics, having last attempted to secure
the mayoralty of Pasig in 2010.

Post-Rectification

The CPP declared the Second Great Rectification Movement as having been "conclusively won" in
1998. Since then, it has re-affirmed that the CPP is in absolute command of the NPA, outlining that its
most pressing task is to "defeat and destroy the US-created and US-supported reactionary Armed
Forces of the Philippines.[33]

Since then, it has continued to wage a protracted people's war through the use of guerrilla tactics,
while steadily expanding. In 2002, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo requested for the United States
Department of State to declare the CPP-NPA as a foreign terrorist group, which was granted on
August 2.[10] This was in line with her counter-insurgency program, Oplan Bantay Laya, which aimed
to end the conflict between the AFP and the NPA. In 2005, the European Union Common Foreign and
Security Policy included the NPA as a terrorist group.[11] Despite these efforts, the NPA has declared
Oplan Bantay Laya I a "failure", citing that it did not lose a single guerrilla front despite the AFP's
efforts of concentrating its forces in 300 to 600 barrios at any given time