Npa - What Is It?

[Medic Mike]

 

Possibly one of the NPA's less glorious moments was when they held up and robbed a relief convoy en route to Leyte after the typhoon.

 

I remember that. At the time I was running command and control in Cebu for patients coming onto the Island from Leyte.

[FlyAway]

NPA = Nice People's Army.

 

[Thomas]

I assume this is the Samar south of Luzon

Yes. But they are in more places e g

/NE parts of Mindanao

/Ararat mountain north of Manila

/Parts of Negros, 

Ive never heard about them threatening or kidnapping foreigners.. There may be exceptions..Not sure.

Besides when they do "police/court work" when that's not done,

I have only heared of two cases:

/It was some kind of hostage/kidnapping situation when they demanded money from a big mining in Surigao province (NE Mindanao). I believe it happened by NPA demanded "revolution tax" and the mining company refused to pay.

/PERHAPS once in Negros, when some civilians where killed in an attack when they travelled together with police, BUT if it's decribed corect, I believe it was done by some in the OPPOSITE side to misscredit NPA. 

I once lived in a NPA stronghold..Although I never heard a whisper from them,the NBI had the post office turn over any of my incoming mail for around 3 months as they thought I might be some kind of foreign organizer.. They couldn't understand what else I would be doing there.

Where? 

 

 

NPA -- no permanent address do not usually bother the foreigners unless they were involved in disrespecting a Filipina.

Sorry Jake, I have to disagree. My doctor friends were doing nothing but attending and setting up clinics in Samar, when they were stopped and robbed by the NPA.

Do you mean soon after Yolanda typhon? 

 

Possibly one of the NPA's less glorious moments was when they held up and robbed a relief convoy en route to Leyte after the typhoon. 

I DON'T find that odd at all, because in the begining ALL aid went to Tacloban - I suppouse because the media was there -  and NOTHING to all (?) other places at Samar/Leyte, although they were hit very hard too...

E g a family I knew a bit, lost both house and their living by more or less all cocopalms broke where they live at Leyte.  The only of the kids, who work elsewhere, put herself in an expensive dept to buy tent and food to her family, so they survived...

Much LATER it came some aid to that province, but that family never got any, because they didn't walk (fast enough) to the baranggay office, where it was handed out. That family STILL haven't got any official aid...

[Medic Mike]

Do you mean soon after Yolanda typhon?

No.

[fred]

Where? 

 

A small town called Tigaon in Camararines del sur.. About an hours drive from Naga.

[Methersgate]

Jake makes reference to the Huks - the Hukbalahap movement.

 

The name is a contraction of  Hukbong Bayan Laban sa mga Hapon", which means "People's Army Against the Japanese."

 

This was the Philippines version of what we British knew in Malaysia as "the Emergency" - it was a movement that began as a grass roots resistance movement to the Japanese during their occupation from 1942-45. It was to some extent organised, like the resistance in occupied China and the resistance in occupied Malaya, by the Communist Party, acting alongside non-communist organisations including, in the case of the Philippines, the American-led resistance.

 

The movement fell away with Independence, then revived very soon thereafter when it became clear to the ordinary folk in the countryside of central Luzon that the nation's independence had brought them nothing - the native elite had replaced the Americans and were, from the point of view of ordinary people, a good deal worse.  

 

The situation was made much worse because the Government of President Roxas, no doubt encoruaged by the Americans. decided to wage "all out war" against the Huks whom the Americans considered to be dangerous Communists,. Unfortunately the Huks were much better disciplined and much less corrupt that the forces on the Government side, so the Huks thrived.  

 

In the end. the Huk movement was effectively defeated by President Magsaysay with a lot of help from the CIA, particularly from Magsaysay's friend, Edward Lansdale. .

 

The CIA's success in defeating the Huks led them to think that they could repeat the trick in Vietnam.

 

We all know what happened next.

 

There is a good account in Wikipedia here:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukbalahap_Rebellion

 

The NPA see themselves as successors to the Huks.

Edited August 15, 2014 by Methersgate

[Jake]

Jake makes reference to the Huks - the Hukbalahap movement.

 

The name is a contraction of  Hukbong Bayan Laban sa mga Hapon", which means "People's Army Against the Japanese."

 

This was the Philippines version of what we British knew in Malaysia as "the Emergency" - it was a movement that began as a grass roots resistance movement to the Japanese during their occupation from 1942-45. It was to some extent organised, like the resistance in occupied China and the resistance in occupied Malaya, by the Communist Party, acting alongside non-communist organisations including, in the case of the Philippines, the American-led resistance.

 

The movement fell away with Independence, then revived very soon thereafter when it became clear to the ordinary folk in the countryside of central Luzon that the nation's independence had brought them nothing - the native elite had replaced the Americans and were, from the point of view of ordinary people, a good deal worse.  

 

The situation was made much worse because the Government of President Roxas, no doubt encoruaged by the Americans. decided to wage "all out war" against the Huks whom the Americans considered to be dangerous Communists,. Unfortunately the Huks were much better disciplined and much less corrupt that the forces on the Government side, so the Huks thrived.  

 

In the end. the Huk movement was effectively defeated by President Magsaysay with a lot of help from the CIA, particularly from Magsaysay's friend, Edward Lansdale. .

 

The CIA's success in defeating the Huks led them to think that they could repeat the trick in Vietnam.

 

We all know what happened next.

 

There is a good account in Wikipedia here:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukbalahap_Rebellion

 

The NPA see themselves as successors to the Huks.

Hey Andrew,

 

Another excellent history lesson!  If my farm (my only livelihood) was confiscated by the Marcos cronies, 

(guns, goons and gold) I would seriously consider signing up as a mountain guerilla.  I lost everything,

so I might as well fight to the death in getting my family, my land and my honor back.  

 

Govt troops and PC (Philippines Constabulary before PNP) were known to abuse the weak and the poor.

 

Thanks for a great cup of coffee mate!  

Edited August 15, 2014 by Jake
spil chek

[Methersgate]

if my farm (my only livelihood) was confiscated by the Marcos cronies,  I would seriously consider signing up as a mountain guerrilla.  I lost everything, so I might as well fight to the death in getting my family, my land and my honor back.    

Govt troops and PC (Philippines Constabulary before PNP) were known to abuse the weak and the poor.  

 

Absolutely!

One of the founders of the Huks, and their long time leader, was Loius Taruc, who was himself a protege of Pedro Abad Santos, of San Fernando, Pampanga, who was pretty much the Philippines pioneer Marxist intellectual (he was the brother of Jose Abad Santos, the Chief Justice who was murdered by the Japanese - they must have been quite a family!)

Edited August 15, 2014 by Methersgate

[Americano]

Don't forget that there are small groups who say they are NPA but they are fake. Some things they do normally the real NPA doesn't do, which gives the NPA a bad name.

 

What is the NPA?  Its whatever the national government tells you it is because they control the news and all propaganda. If the NPA was good people who only oppose corruption at all levels of government then you would never know it by watching the news. The news will never report anything good about the NPA.

[Methersgate]

Don't forget that there are small groups who say they are NPA but they are fake. Some things they do normally the real NPA doesn't do, which gives the NPA a bad name.

 

What is the NPA?  Its whatever the national government tells you it is because they control the news and all propaganda. If the NPA was good people who only oppose corruption at all levels of government then you would never know it by watching the news. The news will never report anything good about the NPA.

That is very true. It was even more true in the days of Marcos;if he wanted more money from Uncle Sam he just rampted up the Communist Menace by another notch or two and the Dollars rained down on him.