REDEMPTION. A group of former New People’s Army rebels launches the book “Unmasking: The Myth of Communism in the Philippines” in Davao City Thursday (April 28, 2022). The book is a compendium of firsthand accounts and analyses from former cadres of the communist rebel organization. (Photo by Robinson Niñal)
DAVAO CITY – A group of former New People's Army (NPA) rebels launched a book Thursday that seeks to expose the inner workings of the rebel group and its front organizations.
The authors said the book, “Unmasking: The Myth of Communism in the Philippines,” is their way of redeeming themselves for their involvement with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), whose ideology espouses the violent overthrow of the government.
Launched at the Sunny Point Hotel here, the book is a compendium of firsthand accounts and analysis of their experience as former cadres of the rebel organization. The book is free.
Joy James Saguino, one of the authors, was the former secretary of the NPA Guerrilla Front 20 that operates in Southern Mindanao.
Saguino was studying accountancy at the University of the Philippines in the Visayas when she was recruited and became a student organizer of Anakbayan and the Kabataan party-lists in 2007.
After a year, she joined one of the NPA guerrilla fronts operating in the towns of Igbaras, Miag-ao, and San Joaquin in Iloilo province.
Saguino, who earned the alias of “Ka Amihan”, revealed that as she assumed positions in various cause-oriented groups, she was also tasked to campaign for the NPA-allied party-lists in the 2016 elections.
Dark truths
She left the organization in 2017 when martial law was declared in Mindanao following the five-month siege of Marawi City by the Maute Group-led terror groups.
Saguino said she took the chance to flee the organization because she already “realized its dark truths”.
“(Making) this book is our way of redeeming ourselves for all the things and for all the people that we let suffer as a result of our participation in the so-called people's war” she said.
Saguino said the psychological debriefing she received from authorities guided her and her colleagues to heal and better themselves to rejoin society.
“Our exposé is not based on vengeance or anger towards our former comrades nor of our former organization, but borne of our love to who we are once, the Filipino youth, where we all started," she explained.
The authors said the book tells the story of the CPP and the robust network base that they have built over the decades.
According to the authors, the book extensively describes the CPP-NPA as an organization and the way it infiltrates the various layers of society to achieve its ends.
Political discourse
A contributing author, Noel Legaspi or Ka Efren, said the book aims to heighten the knowledge of every Filipino about the sociopolitical issues plaguing the country.
“This will also supplement social science subjects for college students, training schools, and those who wish to understand the perspectives of the CPP-NPA-NDF. We wish to explain why insurgency persists all over the Philippines,” he said.
Legaspi was a former political science student at Mindanao State University in General Santos City. He was a former NPA cadre and a spokesperson of the NDF.
He said the book was made convenient to read even by those who are “uninitiated” on political discourse.
“The publication aims to convey clear discussions regarding the subject. Unfamiliar concepts and events are supported with additional research to achieve a deep appreciation for the written material,” he said.
The authors said the book can also serve as reference material in the academe.
“College students, training schools, and other educational institutions can use the publication to understand the perspective of how and why the CPP-NPA-NDF continues to persist all over the Philippines,” Legaspi said.
The three other authors are former youth leader Jake Lanes or Ka Elmo, former secretary-general of Lakas ng Kabataan; former secretary of the East Front Committee and Henry Abraham Command Ivy Lyn Corpin; former operator of NPA’s intelligence unit Eric Celiz; former cadre Rey Christian Sabado.
Celiz is vying for a seat in Congress as the first nominee of the Sambayanan Party-list, while Sabado is now a non-commissioned officer from the Philippine Army's Class 677. (PNA)
