The Philippines are backing away from an ongoing war against communist forces in the New People’s Army this week because of concern about the coronavirus, and a desire to focus on fighting against the spread of the virus.
President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered a unilateral ceasefire against the communist group, ordering police and military to stop all offensives against the group starting Thursday and continuing until April 15. He urged the rebels to respond in kind.
The Philippines has been fighting communist groups on and off for generations, though there have been some recent efforts, including a 2016 effort by the Netherlands, to get peace talks going. This ceasefire might help in getting that back on track, but even if not, a ceasefire would prevent further spreading the virus.
The Philippines has 217 confirmed cases of coronavirus, and has quarantined the country’s north to try to prevent it spreading beyond that area. Manila is currently closed to land, sea, and air travel.
The NPA has traditionally been better at supplying welfare to their regions than the state. This isn’t unusual. Both Hezbollah and the Black Panthers have proven at various points that relatively voluntary organizations take better care of their communities than traditional centralized welfare states. Pretty ironic, considering the Maoist pedigree of both the NPA and the Panthers. I’ve often said that communists are far better at running a revolution than a government. When these movemenst are forced to remain stateless, they take on a much more Kropotkinite approach to communism as a matter of self-sufficiency. Many Maoist and Bolshevik communes worked quite well until their forces took charge of the central government. Apparently no one told them the old hippie adage. “The journey IS the destination, man.”