ABSTRACT
Political, economic, and social crises would overwhelm the government. Strikes and demonstrations would begin to paralyze the cities, while New People's Army guerrillas would reach parity with government forces in the countryside. The revolution was faced with several vital strategic and tactical questions as 1989 began, and a serious misstep on any one of several issues threatened to undermine its chances for success. The problems facing the Philippine revolutionary forces were magnified by the considerable disappointments and setbacks suffered by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in 1988. The revolutionary movement reaped military and propaganda benefits from innovations in weapons and tactics. CPP leaders acknowledged that the revolutionary mood that had swept the country in the twilight of the Marcos regime was far from being recaptured three years into Corazon Aquino's presidency. The revolutionary ideas and methods that the communists have imparted to the rural peasants and urban workers may ultimately prove to be irreversible.
