Pinoyme,
Coming and growing up from the Philippines.
My view on Jose Ma Sison of the NPA was that he was influential during the Marcos dictatorship but I think he had great control of teh NPA during the 70s and 80s but this eroded badly after the 1986 People power revolution. The NPA was basically crippled during the internal purges during the 90s(due to heavy AFP infiltration of its ranks and turning of many of its members to the gov).
Sison himself currently has little to no power over the current NPA and is currently enjoying himself in the Netherlands getting monies and donations from the Dutch gov.
There has always been a schism between the NPA military commanders on the ground and its political admistrative wing.
The NPA currently while very much down is not out. but have been reduced to bandit level.(they supplement their income with criminal activities(kidnapping, extortion, smuugling,drug dealing etc.).
Also , the NPA has always been a haven for criminals on the run, in fact I know of several people who were on the run from the law who joined the NPA to escape capture(many of them returned back to being criminals since they can't hack living in the jungle). Also the relationship between the NPA/AFP/Philippine Gov is interesting. It seems that the Phil Gov is not really interested in completely stamping out the NPA. In the provinces such as Negros, the NPA/AFP/Phil Gov have a cooperative/business relationship that the Phil Gov and local AFP commanders allows the NPA to extort the local pop and recognizes its territory. The NPA has evolved into a criminal organization rather than a grass roots guerilla revolutionary group. Also local AFP commanders make money from bribes, some arms sales etc. to the NPA. This fact is preety much a not too well kept secret but it is quite known and tolerated on the local level.
If you are interested in books on the war in Mindanao in the 70s-Present I highly recomend the following:
Under a Cresecent Moon by Marites Vitug. Gives a broad view on the conflict in Mindanao mostly on the political social aspects of it. Quite balanced.
The Day with Almost Lost Mindanao: The CENTCOM Story. By Former General Francisco Abat. A very nice military view by the commander of the AFP forces in Mindanao at the time on the Mindanao conflict in the early to mid 70s. Chronicles the MNLF offensive and the AFP counteroffensive. The book is quite rare and hard to get even in the Philippines. From what I heard, this book is surprisingly balanced, and gives a matter of fact view on the conflict.
A Mindanao Story by Delfin Castro. Focuses on the whole war with particular focus on the war with the MILF in the 90s.
Bookmarks