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As someone with some background knowledge and
experience in people’s war, I wish to comment on the claims of victory over the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) by Mr. Estrada and his military minions.
Anyone with a modicum of knowledge of strategy and
tactics can say that the taking of the MILF headquarters at the 10,000 hectare
Camp Abubakar does not constitute any kind of military victory.
Both the preceding bombardment on the community and
structures at the site and the acumen of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
in guerrilla warfare required the central fighting units of the Bangsamoro
Islamic Armed Forces to redeploy themselves and engage in mobile defense.
The BIAF is intact and has undiminished strength to
wage guerrilla warfare indefinitely. Mr. Estrada and his military minions delude
themselves if they think that they have achieved any more than a passing moment
of showmanship, paid for by the blood of their troops and a lot of tax money.
The leadership of the MILF and the command of the
BIAF are praiseworthy for correctly following the tactics of guerrilla warfare.
They make a temporary retreat from their headquarters at Camp Abubakar in the
face of an advancing enemy force that is militarily superior, get out of
encirclement and choose the time and place to attack the weak points of the
enemy forces on exterior lines.
Mao Zedong teaches the guerrilla fighters to
retreat when the enemy advances, to harass when he camps, to attack when he
tires and to pursue when he withdraws. It is within this context that we can
understand how a temporary retreat from a certain piece of territory leads to
the preservation of a guerrilla army and to the gaining of time for launching
victorious battles against the enemy.
It suits the reactionary armed forces to launch a
strategic campaign of encirclement and put the revolutionary armed forces on the
strategic defensive. But within this strategic defensive, the revolutionary
armed forces can launch tactical offensives at their own complete initiative by
choosing the time and place to mount a superior force against the weak points of
the enemy.
As the New People’s Army has successfully done for
decades, arming itself with weapons captured from the enemy, the BIAF can
accumulate arms by launching tactical offensives and capturing weapons from the
enemy. An enemy occupation force amidst the hostile Moro population can be bled
to death by countless wounds through tactical offensives. All that the BIAF has
to do is to avoid any strategic battle in which the enemy has the chance to
destroy all or the main forces of the BIAF.
The BIAF can lure in deep the enemy forces and
entrap them in battles of quick decision. It can make a feint in the east to
attack the west. It can hit one enemy unit in order to crush the reinforcements.
It can conduct ambushes, raids and arrests at will. It can deploy snipers,
sappers, mortars and grenade launchers. The tactics available to guerrilla
fighters are so many and so unpredictable to the enemy.
To compel the enemy occupation force to take static
positions and reduce the number of his maneuver units, the BIAF can also launch
special operations against imperialist and comprador firms, electric power
grids, oil depots, communications towers, lines of transport and other
vulnerable targets. These may be considered military targets if served or used
by enemy operations.
By carrying out a protracted people’s war, the BIAF
can accumulate strength and advance from the strategic defensive to the
strategic stalemate and further on to the strategic offensive. In the process,
it can advance from guerrilla warfare to regular mobile warfare and ultimately
to positional warfare.
The political alliance of the NDFP and MILF is of
crucial importance. The concentrated attack of the enemy against one gives the
other excellent opportunities to launch tactical offensives against the weakest
points of the enemy.
The MILF can also draw abundant support from
abroad, especially from the people in Islamic countries who are outraged by the
bombings of Moro communities, homes, schools and mosques. The people of the
world condemn the genocidal war being carried out by the Manila government
against the Moro people.
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