ABSTRACT
The Philippines came under US control in 1898 when Spain surrendered its sole Asian colony. The Philippines have been the sight of Asia's fastest growing Marxist-Leninist insurgency. For Communist theoreticians the Philippines was a semi-feudal, semi-capitalist country dominated by American imperialism. The peasant-tribal divide in the Philippines approximates the division between lowland and upland residents. The New Peoples Army (NPA) territorial structure is under the guidance and control of the Communist Party of the Philippines's (CPP's) Military Commission with a hierarchy of Party cells attached to each corresponding NPA unit from the Center down to region, front, district, section, and local branch. In its military operations the NPA has relied on ambushes and hit-and-run strikes against vulnerable targets by small mobile units of 10 to 20 fighters. The CPP's political strategy has included the creation of mass organizations and broad united fronts to draw non-Communists into various anti-government alliances.
