ABSTRACT
By 1971, the revolutionary movement had taken on something of a national character, reaching far beyond the bounds of the Central Luzon communist-led Hukbalahap rebellions of the 1940s and 1950s. The revolution spread to southern Luzon's Bicol region in a fashion typical of those first years. In late 1971, national Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) leaders decided that a sufficient political base had been established in Bicol to launch guerrilla warfare. Sympathetic priests and nuns influenced by Jalandoni played a crucial role in rebuilding the CPP on Negros. An Armed Forces of the Philippines offensive in late 1972 brought New People's Army activities to a halt in much of the Bicol countryside. Soldiers dismantled the Party-administered farmer's cooperative near Barcelona and flushed the guerrillas out of their "safe" villages. The flow of support provided relief to the surviving rebel squads, and fresh cadres who found their way to the countryside breathed new life into the revolution.
