Tarpaulins which say “49 years of terrorism, CPP-NPA-NDF” have scattered along several footbridges in Manila. But in a municipality in the Cordillera region, there was nothing but strong support to the 49-year long armed struggle that the Communist Party of the Philippines is waging. The “terrorists” the state and its supporters would consider are actually the heroes to the toiling masses.

One command of the New People’s Army peacefully celebrated the 49th founding anniversary of the CPP in a far community in the Cordillera region. Not only was the celebration widely supported by the people in the community, it was the essence of the protracted people’s war that they continue to revere, especially in the time that United States lapdog President Rodrigo Duterte incessantly wages war against the Filipino people.

In the countryside, one would question the veracity of the tagging to the entire revolutionary movement as rebels and terrorists. The locals in the community, who are left behind by the government and are constantly under imperialist plunder attacks, love and fully support what the people in the city call “rebels” and “terrorists.”

The program of the anniversary celebration included a short skit depicting the lives of the NPA and the authenticity of the support of the locals to them.

A lady in her mid-age carrying a baby was moved by the skit and muttered “ang galing galing nila, kung wala lang akong mga anak ay sasampa din ako bilang hukbo.”

The locals here are under constant threats of imperialist plunder wherein they are blinded that projects here will benefit them when in fact it would benefit a hundred more times corporations and capitalists. They are constantly pushed to the side and is completely left behind and worse, not recognized by the government.

They, along with millions of Filipinos, are confronted by Duterte’s tyrannical rule whose dictatorial ambitions are pushed forward with the help of his military sycophants in their wishful desire to destroy those who are against them.

Here, stories of the youth who chose to live a different life were both striking and thought-provoking. Many people say that the youth are wasting their time in fighting for a political ideology. But it is this certain fire in their commitment to that ideology that keeps the flame of the 49-year long struggle alive.

Ka Layaan, 22, tells the story of a girl who has been in the two different military forces in the country. She was a former student at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) and later on withdrew after realizing that the state military forces only serve the interest of the ruling class.

Her experience at the PMA gave truth to the mercenary traditions of the government’s armed forces. It also opened her eyes that it is not the ordinary people that our state forces protect. Rather, she fully grasped that the state military force itself is only a machinery of the reactionary government to suppress the intensifying struggle of the people.

She later ventured into a non-governmental organization (NGO) and tied a closer knit with the masses. Her experiences led to her discernment of the reality of the armed struggle and later on joined full time in the New People’s Army.

Ka Layaan is only one of the thousands of youth who decided to leave their comfortable life in the city and join what they call the “true people’s army” to “advance the people’s war.”

The political situation in our country is too heated that it easily reveals who the real enemy is. And in the countryside, it is an elementary task for them to point who the real terrorists are. For them, it is the reactionary government, whose fascist regime is addicted to bureaucratic corruption and economic liberalization.

In the countryside, the government shuts down clamor for fundamental social change. And this pushes thousands of Filipinos to support and wage a national democratic revolution with a socialist perspective.

The tranquil and successful celebration of the CPP’s anniversary in this small municipality proves the reality of the armed struggle and its necessity, especially because millions of Filipinos are under a ruthless tyrannical rule where exploitation and oppression of the toiling masses escalates and worsens under the semi-colonial and semi-feudal system.

Indeed, the countryside tells a story different from the dominating public opinion in the city. It tells not only a different version of the truth, but a much more compelling truth that the entire Filipino nation should not turn a blind eye on.