First of all, I would like to thank Mike for bringing out this topic; the study of communist activities in Bohol and the Visayas—however as I was reading into the subject last night—I was addressed with the central question of : Who, where and why did this occur? And hence I read and studied the communist phenomenon in the Philippines. The following essay is a political histogram of the basis of communism in the Philippine Republic according to my view and from secondary sources that I’ve read:
During his visit to the United States in 1966, President Ferdinand E. Marcos of the Philippines declared a nationwide television interview that he knew “for a fact†that the recent resurgence of the Huk guerilla activity in his country was assisted by “agents†from Beijing. A year earlier, the Armed Forces of the Philippines intelligence had reported the discovery of military training centres in Bicol and the Visayas run by Chinese communists. According to the same report, some 3,000 Chinese subversives in the Philippines were working closely with the Huks. Philippine constabulary chief, Brig General Flavio Olivares, termed the threat posed by the Chinese Communist infiltrators as more serious that of the Huks. He noted that the lax enforcement of immigration laws facilitated the entry of Chinese communists and added that in recent years, some 1,000 Chinese had gone to China, ostensibly for sentimental reasons, but had come back to the Philippines as agents. Despite the frequently partisan and self-serving complexion of some official Philippine pronouncements on the communist danger, it is impossible today to discount the significance of communist activity in the Philippines or to minimize the related problem of illegal Chinese immigration.
I. Growth of Philippine Communist PartyCommunism was late in getting organized in the Philippines, although the brilliant Indonesian communist and Comintern organizer Tan Malakka had visited Manila as early as 1925 to rally radical nationalist sentiment. Not until the 1930s was (PKP) Partido Kommunista sa Pilipinas formally organized itself and that following year, declared that in “the present bourgeois democratic stage of the Philippine Revolution†as its aim were the ‘complete liberation and independence†of the Philippines from the Imperialist American Parasite, implementation of the agrarian revolution, implementation of radical improvement in the working and living conditions of the proletariat masses. One also needs to understand that during this time, there was an increase rise in Masonic lodges—which was deemed ‘incompatible with communist forces’.
Strikes and protests were rather common during this time. The economic depression of the early thirties and the sharp fall in the prices of principal crops like sugar, hemp, and rice as well as the pauperization of the Luzon tenant population, at first enhanced the party’s appeal (the PKP, that is). But after a few months membership still remained only at 2,500. The leadership was tactically unprepared for a co-ordinated revolutionary campaign; additionally, American-administered Philippines utilized repression that was swift; as well the main force of Philippine nationalism, which was reflected by the NP (Nationalista Party), seemed to pass by the PKP. The eventual outlawing of the party and imprisonment of most of its chief leaders within a year of its founding, seemed to many to have put a decisive crimp in the future development of the whole radical left.
But unlike the harried underground communists in Indonesia and Malaya of the 30’s, the PKP cadre remnant proved much more adaptable to united front tactics in time of stress (as is in the case of Philippine guerilliasm in times of war). Continuaing peasant unrest in central Luzon gave Philippine communism an enduringly useful tactical frame for agitation, and the founding of the Socialist party in ’33 gave it a definite front home. And the basis of : so long as there were hungry, angry members of the proletariat, there will be followers of communist ideology; longing for human retribution for their sufferings from those who were part of the ‘elitist borgeois’ as a scapegoat.
II. Indonesia’s InfluenceIntially, Indonesia provided the chief impetus for the resurgence of Philippine communist activity since the early 1960s. In the 1962-63, after the successful Indonesian campaign to aquire Dutch West New Guinea (Irian Jaya) and with rising influences of Indonesia Communist Party (PKI), collaboration between Greater Jakarta and Beijing to radicalize the political outlook of the new nations and align them both against the US and the USSR. Buttressed also by the official Indonesian mystique of a “Greater Indonesian State†(Indonesiaya Rajah) comprising of all Malay people in South East Asia including present day Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines and southern Thailand. The PKI began to exert its own revolutionary and expansionist pressure, particularly in parts of Malaysia and the Philippines.
Evidently the Philippines fell within the projected “Greater Indonesian Malayapura Sphereâ€; while Philippine visitors to Sukarno’s palance might nervously laugh of his huage map of Southeast Asia with the Philippines apparently part of the Indonesian territory, the mounting evidence of Indonesian subversive and spying attempts in the Philippines was more difficult to ignore. The sizable community of Indonesian immigrants, many illegal (many now have been assimilated to Philippine society—or their descendents) in the Philippines. (Some 10-15,000 in Mindanao; about 3,000 in Davao Province alone), provided ideal cover for the penetration of Indonesian Communist agents. The chairman of the Philippine Senate’s Labour and Immigration Committee, after conducting extensive hearings in the course of 1964, described the Indonesian problem:
“The series of public hearings and closed session conducted last year by the senate labour and immigration committee, of which I have the honour of being the chairman, revelaed some startling information on the infiltration and underground activities of Indonesians in Mindanao, many of whom are hard-core communists. During the visit of Sukarno to the outlying islands of Sanguir, Las Palmas, Karakelang and Talud, between Celebes and Minanao, for instance, the inhabitants waved communist banners with the familiar hammer and sickle emblem. On Karakelang island close to davao, the PKI mantaintained a school for the training of Indonesian communist converts in the tactics of infiltration, propaganda, general intelligence work, and handling of various types of military weapons. This training centere is evidently like the Stalin University, which flourished in the Luzon at the height of the Huk movement.â€---------------------
It is without further disagreement that these random cases of communist advocates in the Visayas, Mindanao and Luzon are mere after-effects of the infiltration and influences of the PKI to the local populace in the Philippines with inherent pro-communist agenda. The phenomenon was eventually crushed in the Visayas, Luzon Mindanao by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (which also crushed rising pro-secessionist MILF/MNLF----thanks to Pres. Marcos for his hard-lined stance in wiping out the communist and pro-separatist muslims who were heavily influenced by the PKI), however, pockets of advocates still exist, and will continue to exist so long as there are members of the massa who continue to live in sub par human conditions, whose rights of citizenship have been ignored by government of the Philippines.
The main goal is assess these pro-communist advocates and take into consideration their wants and needs—so thereby public policy will include them—and evade further escalation of this communist phenomenon. We must also remember and know that all problems in the Philippines either it be communism, rising waves of islamofascism are directly related to the political and religious discourse of our neighbours outright: Indonesia, China, Malaysia and the United States.
Policy must take these into consideration. That is my humble view.
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Disclaimer: This is my own view, and a view that has been supported by research, to know where I recieved the information in this essay, please visit these sources:
"Meet the Press,"
originating in New York City, September 18, 1966
The Manila Times, September 28, 1965.
Renze L. Hoeksema, Com-
munism in the Philippines: a Historical and Analytical Study of Communism and
the Communist Party in the Philippines and its Relations to Communist Movements
Abroad (unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Government, Harvard University,
Cambridge, Mass., 1956)
Antonio S. Araneta Jr., The Communist Party of the
Philippines and the Comintern, 1919 to 1930 (unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Oxford
University, 1966)
Supreme Court of the Philippines, Term-1933, Crisanto Evange-
lista, et al., versus the People of the Philippine Islands. On Petition for Writ of
Certiorari to the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands (Manila, 1933)
S. Carpio, " First Congress of the Communist Party of the Philippines," Inmprecorr,
June 25, 1931, pp. 603-604
George Weightman, The Chinese Community in the Philippines (unpublished M.A
Thesis, University of the Philippines, 1952), p. 139.
Manila in
1946, entitled "The Peasant War in the Philippines. A Study of the Causes of
Social Unrest in the Philippines-an Analysis of Philippine Political Economy,"
reprinted in Philippine Social Sciences and Humanities Review, XXIII, nos. 2-4, 1958,
pp. 373-436
Napoleon G.
Rama, "Who Are Sabotaging the Land Reform Program," Philippines Free Press,
July 9, 1966, pp. 3, 68, 69
(This essay is a product of 4-5 hours of research in the library---my apologies if i didnt have time to spell check)
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