TODAY is the 52nd founding anniversary of the communist New People’s Army (NPA). More than half a century of “protracted war” in the Philippine countryside has brought nothing but loss of lives, destruction to land and property, and billions of pesos spent on ammunition and war materiel rather than on education, infrastructure, healthcare and other services needed by the people.

The killing by the NPA of five policemen in an ambush in Labo, Camarines Norte last March 19 was another tragic loss of lives. In the wake of the ambush, the Communist Party of the Philippines advised the police and the military to simply surrender when facing superior rebel forces.