ABSTRACT
Corazon Aquino and her advisers believed that most of the guerrillas had joined the rebel army because of military human rights abuses and poverty. Aquino's advisers were convinced that the armed forces were in no shape to wage an effective campaign against the rebels. Pentagon officials encouraged Armed Forces of the Philippines opposition to the cease-fire strategy. US assistant defense secretary Richard Armitage described the military situation as "serious and getting worse," and declared that Aquino's peace efforts had not produced results. Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) leaders saw negotiations not as a realistic manner of resolving the conflict but as a way to avoid further political isolation at a crucial juncture. The CPP leadership had determined that one of the greatest opportunities offered by the truce was the chance to address Filipinos' deepseated fears of communism, and the Party unleashed a propaganda offensive toward that end.
