Raymund B. Villanueva – Kodao.org – News
December 15, 2025
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has ordered the New People’s Army (NPA) to implement a four-day ceasefire during Christmas and New Year.
The CPP said the unilateral ceasefire declaration will take effect from midnight of December 25 to one minute before December 27 and again on midnight of New Year’s eve, December 31, until one minute before January 2.
“On the above specified days, all units of the NPA are directed to go into active defense mode especially in the face of relentless military operations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) against peasant communities and guerrilla fronts across the country,” the CPP said.
Traditionally implemented by the CPP and the NPA, Yuletide ceasefire declarations are sometimes reciprocated by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP), particularly during formal and back-channel peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
The last CPP Christmas ceasefire declaration was on December 25 and 26, 2023 following simultaneous announcements weeks earlier by the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government and the NDFP of discussions trying to revive formal peace negotiations.
It was not reciprocated by the AFP, instead ordering continued military operations against the NPA.
The GRP has yet to respond to this year’s ceasefire declaration by the CPP.
Founded in December 26, 1968, the CPP is set to celebrate its 57th founding anniversary next week.
Marcos Jr., during his State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July, ordered his government’s security forces to eliminate the NPA once and for all by year’s end.
The AFP reported earlier this year that there are zero active NPA guerilla fronts left in the country, marking GRP’s strategic victory over the underground revolutionary army.
A series of armed encounters between the AFP and the NPA ensued across the country after the president’s SONA however, proving his claims were false.
Last Saturday, another armed encounter between the NPA and the 8th Infantry Division of the Philippines Army happened in San Jose de Buan in Samar, the CPP reported.
The clash resulted in the death of two government troopers reportedly belonging to the Military Intelligence Battalion of the said AFP unit.
NPA-Western Samar spokesperson Tirado Dagohoy reported one NPA fighter sustained a minor injury and “easily evaded the enemy.”
The CPP said that during their four-day ceasefire, all Red commanders and Red fighters must remain on high alert against “treacherous ground and aerial attacks of the AFP.”
“They must work closely with the masses, and must be ever ready to maneuver or counter-attack, when necessitated by the situation,” it said.
The CPP also enjoined units of the NPA and local peasant organizations to conduct cultural and education activities in time for CPP’s anniversary.
The group said the temporary ceasefire order is being issued in solidarity with the Filipino people as they conduct simple celebrations of their traditional holidays “amid grave social and economic conditions.”
# (Raymund B. Villanueva, reporting in Kathmandu, Nepal)