The latest SWS survey showing the overwhelming desire of the Filipino people for peace despite their distrust of the CPP-NPA is a resounding rejection of the all-out war policy of the militarist GMA regime as much as it is a clear critique of the conduct of the armed struggle in the countryside.

The survey results are not a sign of confusion but of clarity. The Filipino people understand that the armed rebellion is borne out of social grievances that the government must address. The armed struggle is not a tumor that must be excised by surgical operation but is a symptom of a festering social cancer that must be redressed by social reforms. 

The people do not buy the line peddled by the GMA regime and its imperialist boss that the CPP-NPA and other revolutionary groups are cold-blooded terrorists. Despite all the anti-terrorist hype and hysteria concocted by the puppet GMA regime, the people still prefer the path of peace rather than the way of war. 

Nonetheless, the survey must serve as wake up call for the CPP-NPA. It is not yet late to change gear and shift course in order to win over the substantial constituency for peace. If they want to win the hearts and minds of the people, including the poor and oppressed, they must sincerely pursue the road of negotiated political settlement rather than merely use it as a venue to score propaganda points. Now is the opportune moment to aggressively push for peace, at a time when the reactionary GMA regime is bent on waging war against the sentiments of a majority of the people. 

Moreover, it is high time for the CPP-NPA to rethink the strategy of revolutionary struggle in the Philippines. While we do not question armed struggle as a form of struggle, we doubt the viability of protracted war as a strategy for revolution in the present circumstances. Despite the bankruptcy of the political system, the space for political dissent legitimizes the open and unarmed mass movement as the primary mode of struggle even for revolutionaries seeking the overthrow of the reactionary system. ###