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The Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project is looking to commission a series of 1,500-word stories about the New People’s Army.
The stories will be written in a way that they can be read both collectively and individually. They would be wholly objective and neutral as they seek to help readers understand the NPA – their origins and history, funding, politics and strategy, organization, links to other groups, human rights record and what they represent, their relationship to the government and grass level groups among others, their role and what the future will see (i.e. war or peace and accommodation, or conflict).
We have listed story ideas we would like to see covered but other ideas are also welcome. People interested should in the first instance email us with a synopsis of how they would cover the story. The stories will be copyright to the Project but can be freely republished elsewhere. We look forward to your ideas in the coming days.
Articles should have point-counter-point quotes. Some can be more analytical than others – but all have to be sourced, have plenty of quotes, and be written in a very engaging and informative style to ensure neutrality and objectivity.
This is just a first of series of story packages the Project aims to commission. In the next days, we would post calls to contribute in our story packages on rural poverty and education in the Philippines .
1. The New People’s Army: 39 years on
This is a general overview of its origins, history, ideology, structure, membership, tactics and support then and now. It does not aim to be a dry historical or academic piece but a critical look from the past to the present. It sources different perspectives and opinions, discusses the NPA’s leadership and schisms, and discusses the point that it is cited as a terrorist organization. This is be a great informative opener. This can be 2,000 words.
2. The NPA: an important actor or a spent force?
Just how big and important is it? What is the trajectory? Is it getting bigger and more powerful, or is it dying out? Either way, what are the reasons? Just how important is it? Where does it get its support from and why? Geographically where is it strongest? Is it still about politics or is the message already old and worn out? How do the leaders respond in the 21st century? Do they have any policies and do they add up? This piece concludes with a little conjecture about the future but based on quotes and sources, not the writer’s own.
3. NPA and human rights
The recent ‘apology’ of an NPA unit in southern Philippines for killing a businessman – an act the group itself described as a “highly regrettable occurrence” – highlights the group’s human rights record. This piece looks into human rights abuses posed against the NPA, including the purges and the so-called people’s courts. It also looks into the issue of the NPA being engaged in a war against the authorities. If its mission is to destabilize and given it believes it is fair to execute soldiers and businessmen, are the government and others not right to label it a terrorist organization?
4. NPA’s friends and enemies
This takes a look at the NPA’s links to other groups, including but not restricted to the Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front. This also scrutinizes the NPA’s dynamics with other breakaway groups like the Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB) in Negros island, which reportedly has opened its “services” to landowners resisting the national land reform program. This also discusses the group’s relationship to the military and those in the military who are committed to its destruction. People report about its convenient link to the Abu Sayyaf and MNLF. Is this just fiction and propaganda or is there an element of truth to it?
5. The NPA: help or hindrance to fight poverty and injustice?
Is the presence of the NPA a help or hindrance to the human rights community and the battle against poverty and injustice? People in authority use the alleged links between the NPA and rural groups and NGOs as a reason to target the latter and to paint the fight against them as a fight against attempts to promote unrest and insurrection. What is the NGO view of the NPA— help or hindrance? Does NPA’s existence simply ensure more and more victims and disappearances or do rural people see it as their protection against local warlords and militia?
6. The NPA as covered by the media
What is fact and what is fiction? Do the NPA have both their supporters and detractors in the media? If so, how are we getting a clear picture of them?
7. War or negotiated peace: what does the future hold?
Can the military defeat the NPA by military means? Will a military campaign hurt more than it will help? In the peace process, who is playing honest broker? What are the possible steps forward? This piece also takes a look at other attempts around the world to negotiate peace (i.e. IRA, Tamil Tigers, etc). Do people think there should be ongoing dialogue or rather a simple refusal to negotiate with any who use ‘terror-tactics’? What would happen if they laid down their arms and are decommissioned? Would things get worse or better?
Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project
Partners: IWPR, CCJD, NUJP and MindaNews
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Quezon City 1103 Philippines
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