As A Woman In The New People's Army (NPA)

Are some MAKIBAKA members also members of the NPA?

     We consider the NPA to be different, because it's not a mass
organization, but rather an army. We don't consider women who
join the NPA to still be members of MAKIBAKA. If they join up
with the popular-militia, which is a part of the NPA, but not a
regular Army unit, then they can stay members of MAKIBAKA.

Is this because the NPA is always itinerant and never stays in
one place for very long?

     Yes, the reason for this is that the rules in the NPA are
very strict. If a person wants to leave the unit, then she/he
must take a vacation. When I was still with the NPA, we had the
right to 2 weeks of vacation per year. How could the women stay
active in MAKIBAKA when they were in the NPA at the same time?
Although we support women anywhere who are engaged in
revolutionary work, they still must leave MAKIBAKA when they join
the NPA. But at the same time we are strengthening the NPA by
building women's committees within their units and companies, so
that the women have their own structures within the NPA.

What were your experiences as a woman in the NPA? What problems
did you encounter, and how did you deal with these?

     In my case, I was doubly taxed. On the one hand, I am a
woman, and there were very few in the NPA, and on the other hand,
I was from the city. When you go into the mountains, you notice
how different the city is. Everyone watches to see how you handle
the fatigue. So I had to prove myself twice over. In the city I
was active in sports. I used to be an athlete. But's it's an
entirely different physical burden, being on the move every day,
climbing mountains, scrambling up and down steep cliffs. I was 18
when I first joined up with the People's Army. I was the only
woman in our unit. That meant that all eyes were on me to see how
I would make it.

What was the main reason which compelled you to join the NPA?

     There was a state of war, and the trend was to go into the
country. At that time I didn't think it at all strange to go into
the NPA as a woman. I had been very active in the city organizing
women in the slums. We worked underground, so we were always on
the move. I was even arrested once, but I got the chance to
escape. So I didn't imagine it could be so difficult in the
mountains. When I got there, the reactions of the farming men and
women surprised me. At least in the city things don't stand out
as much. Everyone lives together in a secret house. Men and women
both do the housework. Everyone sleeps on the floor. The women
dare to make the first move should they become attracted to a
man. But in the guerrilla zone in the country, the situation is
very feudal, and that did not suit me very much. For example,
when we came into a village and met the farming men and women,
and someone explained that I was the only woman, everyone would
stare at me. It was only months later when I began to grasp their
culture that I realized that they hardly listened to me at all.
Maybe they all just looked at me as if I were somehow different.
Or if we came upon a difficult road, then the commander would
say, "There is a shorter way, but I don't think you could make
it. So we'll take the longer, easier way." I had to make clear to
him that I was prepared to take the difficult path. But that
wasn't easy, but occasionally I really couldn't go the
distance. But still, that has nothing to do with my gender, but
rather it was because I was from the city. But they always said
it was because I was a woman. And sometimes, if I tried to
explain myself, my comrades just started laughing. They thought
that I just wanted to talk and say useless stuff.
     But in the first unit I was in, my comrades were very
considerate and they supported me. They were also from the city
and they were used to being around women. But when I got
transferred to another unit, in which most of the people were
farmers, then I came upon hard times. I had to be told what to
do. When we entered a house, it was our rule that those with
automatic weapons would sleep on the floor near the door. In the
event that an enemy should come, they could protect the others so
that they could escape from the house. But when I came into the
house, the family often insisted that I go into a room with a
bed, since they didn't want me sleeping with the men on the floor
or near the door. The women were supposed to sleep in the
bedroom. This is actually dangerous, because the person in the
bedroom would probably be the last one to be able to leave in the
event of an attack. So sleeping in the bedroom was not more safe,
as they thought, so I always had to explain to them that I didn't
mind sleeping with my comrades on the floor.

Didn't your comrades support you in these situations?

     Sometimes. But other times I had to discuss this with them
and they would criticize me for being stubborn and unyielding.
Even if we discussed the problem for a long time and seemed to
clear it up, it would still come back to the same arguments. They
would ask me why I act the way I do, as if everything was so
important, and I'd say, "It is important, because I'd be the last
one to be able to escape." Especially with the richer farmers,
because they always wanted to put a mosquito net over the bed,
and it's impossible to get out of one of those in a hurry.
     Before I went to the mountains, I never dreamed I'd have
such problems. There are many situations which seem quite normal
at first glance. But when you look closer, you see that the two
sexes get treated very differently. Once I asked a group of
farmers, what kind of leader they wanted. We were there to build
up their organization, and so they needed the support of someone
from the NPA. I was the only one who had organized these farmers.
And they answered, anyone, just not a woman. It didn't matter if
I was capable or not, or if I was serious in my work. They just
didn't want a woman. I was shocked that they would tell me
something like this so openly and directly. I asked them why they
didn't want a woman, and they said, "Because sometimes we have to
go through caves and over cliffs, and women can't go through
those places, because it's too difficult." So I had to show them
that women could, in fact, do those things, and even more
difficult things.
     According to the rules and regulations in the NPA, men and
women are equal, our rights are well defended. But in daily
operations, the differences come into view. I always wanted to be
part of a military operation, to see how one worked. But it took
a long time before I ever got that experience. But for my male
comrades, it was much easier. Even if they were new, they could
join military operations right away. The first fight I
experienced was a defensive fight. We were surprised at a house.
Since we knew the way, two men and I went and fetched a regular
NPA unit. The moment we arrived, the military dove in and there
was a shoot-out. And then I heard the commanding officer (CO)
say, "Watch that woman, so that she can get away." So one of our
fighters came and took me to another village. I didn't want to
go, but during an exchange there is no time to discuss and
protest. Although I was furious, I had no choice but to obey.
Afterwards I asked them why I had to leave. They said it was
because I hadn't had the same training as a regular fighting
unit. But then, neither did the other two men. When the CO gave
an order, he simply said, "Get the woman out of here!" He never
once said my name or referred to me as the novice or the
reconnaissance person. I was truly very disgusted.

But you still kept at it?

     Yes, I didn't give up. Something good about our region is
that there are actually several women in the Army and in the
armed propaganda/organizing teams of the NPA. And there are other
teams that are all women. Since there are many of us women now,
they can no longer simply ignore us. In other regions, like
Pampanga, there are very few women in the NPA. Pampanga is a
region of the country that is most affected by machismo. There,
the women are virtual slaves. There, the men traditionally
comprise the NPA. A woman friend of mine who was in the NPA
there, was, for years, the only woman. This is because women had
to prove themselves to such a great degree before being accepted
into the NPA. And then they "only" got put in a
propaganda/organizing team. The situation is very different in
South-Luzon, where some military units are even commanded by
women.

Was it a struggle to reach the point where things are now?

     Yes. In our division we noticed that the NPA did not want to
admit any women that year because they felt it would be too
difficult for them. That was in 1975/76, during the heaviest
period of the Revolution. All of our bases fell apart at once. We
lost our strength, and the war dragged on. So then we looked for
anyone who could help rejuvenate the organization. For many days
we went without food, and we didn't know how long things would go
on like that. We had to survive on one banana a day. We were
constantly at each other's throats. Sometimes, when the military
would reach our camp, the ashes would still be warm, we had only
just left. Sometimes we'd sleep in the grass, and we'd have to
crawl away when we heard the rustling approach of the military.
Our mass base was very small. Many areas, in which we once had
been strong, became controlled by the military. At that time
there were so few of us that we needed some good people. Although
it wasn't a written rule, it just happened that no women were
taken in. Because there were so few of us then, the leader had
the final say on who to admit. One of the leaders was especially
distrustful of women. He said he had problems when women were
around him. Consequently, no women were admitted for an entire
year. In subsequent years, however, they could no longer deny
access to women, since so many wanted to get involved. But there
was a year during which it was very difficult to recruit members.
But those who did try to join were almost always women, so they
had no choice. Many top leadership positions in South-Luzon are,
as a result, presently occupied by women. Women's issues can now
no longer be simply ignored. But actually I don't think this is
representative of the rest of the country.

Do you think that the roles which women perform still lack
acceptance?

     Of course. When I joined the NPA, I was the only woman
there. In the last few years it has become more commonplace to
see woman in the NPA or doing organizing. In my day, they asked,
"Are you married? What do your parents think?" Or when they learn
you are married, they ask, "Where are your children? What do you
do about them? What does your husband think of all this?" My
husband and I actually requested to be placed in separate units.

Why?

     Because he over-shadowed me. He is so protective. For a
short time I experienced what that meant for me. When it was my
task to seek out and distribute dispatches, he didn't want me
handling dangerous ones. But I liked doing that work. Organizing
people in expansionist zones, for example, is dangerous. He put
me under lots of pressure to refuse dangerous dispatches and to
remain safely in the background. Of course I didn't like this. I
think that if we had been stationed together, that I wouldn't
have been able to develop freely.

How do people in the NPA units bathe?

     That depends on the region. Once we were able to bathe
whenever and wherever we wanted. Even men and women together, but
later we were advised that the men and the women should be
separated. Women are given a hard time if they bathe with the
men. Because this is a feudal society, they think you're trying
to seduce someone if you bathe in the presence of a man. So we
had to start having the men and women wash in separate rooms.

I would call that patriarchal, because such mechanisms also exist
in our society, which is not feudal.

     In the country it's even worse. In the city, we could at
least make mention of these things in our discussions and
statements. In the country, where society is much more
authoritarian, the norms are even stricter. There things are
twice as hard. You are suspect if you just talk to a man alone in
the same room. I like discussing things, and often I'd suddenly
realize that we were alone in the room. Even though the door
would be open, the others would get suspicious, ask where my
husband was, etc... That makes it difficult to discuss themes
like equality and the right to decide things about one's own
body. Then things return to normal. We have to break through
this: the land does not belong to the big property
owners; all they have is a piece of paper. In reality, the
farmers who work the land should profit from it. The people then
begin to question the relationship between tenant and landowner.
And then we should ask, why only question this relationship and
remain so uncritical of others? When we talk to the farming
women, the men come to the windows and try to find out what we're
discussing.

Maybe they think you have a bad influence on the women.

     Yes. Once we were discussing things with a group of farming
women, and we started talking about our experiences with
oppression, and some of the women started weeping. The men, who
were listening in, got embarrassed. They didn't want such things
to be discussed with other people.

I think it's very important to discuss such things openly.

     The first step when organizing women is exchanging our views
on life and our personal experiences. Since we are activists, we
can then ask the men, "Could you cook for us this time? We're
having a meeting." This they gladly would do, because that way
they could listen in to what we were saying. After listening in
several times, some comrades asked us, "What are you doing, why
is that couple quarreling?" They urged us to go easier on them.
But we said to them, "It's not the women's problem, it's the
men's! They have to make the changes!"

So far you've named negative examples. Have you also had positive
experiences?

     Of course, but before you asked about problems. As I
mentioned before, my first unit supported me well. Without a long
discussion, a collective decision was made to nominate me as one
of the women leaders of the unit. When we tried to get more women
integrated into non-traditional roles, so that they also could
participate in tactical offenses, some men supported us. Now and
then men support us, like my husband for example. If we had
wanted to have children then we could have divided the work. In
his unit, which only consisted of men, he tried to start a
discussion on sexual discrimination. Once he asked his comrades,
"We talk of consolidating our strength and raising consciousness,
but who of us can say that our wives are active in the
Revolution?" Some of his comrades have it easy. The wife's at
home caring for the kids and she cares for the man when he comes
home. So my husband asked, "Let's count: how many of us give our
wives the freedom to join the struggle?" They all laughed and
were embarrassed, because they had no answer as to why they
didn't support their wives more.

I've heard that CP [Communist Party - trans.] members can only
marry people who are at least members of one of the NDF [National
Democratic Front, a mass political front controlled by the CP/NPA
- trans.] organizations. Is this also the case with the NPA?

     No, which is ironic. NPA members are those most closely
involved with the struggle, and yet their wives are usually
wholly excluded. Other women, who either aren't married or whose
husbands are less active, can work in the political
organizations. They can share the work at home and in the fields
with the men. But the wives of full-time activists have to do all
the work alone.

That's similar to the capitalist system itself, where only the
worker is seen as belonging to the exploited masses. If the
worker had to do everything for themselves, they could never
afford to be at this job for 8-10 hours a day.

     Exactly, and that's one of the problems that hasn't been
solved yet. More and more people are joining the struggle and
dedicating their lives to the movement. The labor which they are
therefore abandoning has to be taken up by women. If the women
complains, then she's seen as uncooperative. "Why is she
complaining? Doesn't she understand her husband's doing something
important?" That's why I sometimes purposely complain to people
about housework.
     Even the last CO I had, before I was shot, supported me.
When he took over another command, he designated me his
replacement. Before then women always remained in the second row.
If a man is CO of the troops, then the women is but a
vice-officer. If the man gets promoted to field-CO, then the
women is just still a vice-field-officer, instead of becoming CO
of the troops. She forever remains number two. Only very, very
rarely does a woman become CO of a unit.
     Some men also helped me to explain women's problems to other
comrades. Many times, men would avoid me because they said I just
brought out contrary opinions. This is especially the case when a
women gets raped by a military soldier. Everyone either says
nothing or they whisper to one another as if they were ashamed to
discuss it. This happened in our region. A woman was raped and
she often discussed the event. The others weren't sure how they
should react. Even the other women, who weren't very politicized,
didn't know what they should say. All over, people mumbled, "Why
does she talk about it so much, it her's fault, etc..." Then we
spoke to these people and asked them to explain themselves. We
said to them, "That woman was raped by a soldier, and yet you
make it seem as though she must have seduced him first. They
would just as easily rape a corpse. You don't have to do anything
to get raped. Before you speak, imagine being raped yourself.
When you think like you do, you are essentially saying that the
soldiers are better people than the revolutionary women."
     Much worse, of course, are incidents of rape within the NPA
itself. With a rape case, the woman victim is included as part of
the investigative committee. Once a woman said she's been raped.
Although the man was a moderately high-ranking officer in the
NPA, the investigative committee ordered him to be executed by a
firing squad. Though he appealed to a higher jurisdiction, his
conviction was upheld. This was only possible because there was
several women in that particular unit. But for months after,
though a verdict had been given, many men complained. They
maintained that there could not have been a rape. The woman, they
said, must have been suggestive. Some even claimed to have been
with her themselves on occasion.
     But it's a very long way until we've reached the point where
one can finally discuss such matters. Before, NPA members
couldn't even dance together, not even at village festivals,
since that could "lead" to something. It was a long process to
get discussing this subject. We used to always say, "Look, those
are young men and women. They join the NPA when they're 18 or 19.
Especially in the villages, when we'd be staying in other
people's houses, there is really no way to get to know one
another closer. The NPA are usually in the jungles. How else can
the younger ones get to know each other better and develop a
normal relationship with one another?" Finally we won out. Ever
since 1982/83, the rule was scrapped, and now the NPA's are
allowed to dance!

(Translated by Arm The Spirit from 'Agitare Bene' #44 - June 1991)