“But for various reasons, the CPP-NPA remains a strong political force and army that pose a threat to national security, aside from the terror groups the government has to contend with.

Communists are not supposed to observe the Christmas holidays. True Marxists do not have religion. They do not have a god.

But Philippine communism, even from the pre-Joma days, had taken a different path from the Marxist-Leninist line that it is not surprising to see party members or combatants still believing in pagan, animist and Christian beliefs.

Present-day commies, majority of them Maoists, have used religion to feed its army with fighters. They rode on the coattails of the liberation theology that swept Latin America from the 1970s to the 1980s, with most impoverished Filipinos able to relate to their experience of poverty, social injustice, assassinations and torture.

Their being Catholics — well, most of them — have also contributed to the link between the distant peoples.

Social and economic conditions in the Philippines have continued to be magnets to rebellious forces that fought the establishment. These same concerns have spurred revolutions from Dagohoy to Bonifacio to the Lapiang Malaya and, of late, the New People’s Army (NPA).

They have different political convictions, but the root causes of their wars were the same.

The old Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP), founded in 1930 by Crisanto Evangelista (considered as the founder of Philippine communism) and which merged with the Socialist Party of the Philippines at around the same time, was able to recruit land tillers and the young labor force of a very infant, yet industrialized country. It had mustered enough strength to form an army against the Japanese invaders in 1941 and, in the 1950s, had threatened to topple the Western-influenced government.

But it had a few dedicated and true Marxists in its ranks. Its soldiers still believed in sorcery and the presence of God that some of them have betrayed their comrades to their parish priests in the manner the old Katipuneros before them had snitched on their brothers up the hills to the Spaniards. Most of them were rebels with personal and familial grievances who do not understand Marxism.

It was in this context and the subsequent arrests of its leaders that the young turks led by Prof. Jose Maria Sison had split the PKP-1930 to form the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) a day after Christmas in 1968.

The NPA came about in the next year, on 29 March 1969, from the remnants of the PKP-1930’s Hukbong Magpapalaya ng Bayan. Together, the CPP-NPA had waged a protracted war that is still in effect today.

The guerrilla war based on the Maoist strategy of protracted people’s war was aimed at surrounding the city until the CPP-NPA could sense victory for the final push. Old communists claimed that victory was imminent in the mid-1980s until the moderate and middle-class forces have stolen their chance through the so-called EDSA revolt, which drove Ferdinand Marcos out of the country.

It was believed the NPA had about 25,000 combatants during those years.

A fatal internal purge had shaken the Maoist party in the late 1980s to early 1990s, however. It led to the many splits that weakened the CPP-NPA, which is now just a shell of what it was at the height of Marcos’ power and his martial law.

Several military sources claimed the Armed Forces of the Philippines could easily crush the CPP-NPA anytime it wants to. If it would want to.

But for various reasons, the CPP-NPA remains a strong political force and army that pose a threat to national security, aside from the terror groups the government has to contend with.

It could be this spread of resources that makes the government adamant of pulverizing its enemies which it could face fully one at a time.

Government’s resources are obviously centered on the terror Abu Sayyaf and its various affiliates which have sworn allegiance to the Islamic State.

The CPP-NPA, which had publicly ditched terror operations to separate itself from terror groups, has a chance at forging unity with government. And for many times it did. And for many times, too, they have failed to reach a consensus with government.

There is a ray of hope this time. Government has offered the peace hand to the communists — and maybe for the last time.

President Rodrigo Duterte has two years or so left in his term. Forging peace with the communist rebels is not easy to attain given this backdrop. But he will try.

After much trash talking and throwing of mud, both sides have agreed to drop their rifles and bandoleers for a Christmas truce.

The practice has become customary to both sides for a long time now. It is proof that peace could be achieved albeit momentarily.

Real peace, however, will be a long work.

Nobody could say if it could be achieved. It’s like asking Santa if he and his North Pole project are real.