The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) hereby directs all units of the New People's Army to suspend offensive military operations (SOMO) from 12:01 am of December 24, 2009 to 11:59 pm of December 26, 2009 and from 12:01 am of December 31, 2009 to 11:59 pm of January 1, 2010.

This unilateral SOMO declaration in deference to the people's holiday celebrations. It will also allow the revolutionary forces and the masses, including delegations from workers' unions and other urban-based organizations and sectors and other supporters and friends of the national democratic revolutionary movement, to gather peacefully in more than a hundred guerrilla fronts thoughout the country for the celebration of the 41st anniversary of the CPP, the victories of the revolutionary movement and the defeat of the US-Arroyo regime's Oplan Bantay Laya.

As the US-Arroyo regime's cannot be trusted even with its own SOMO declaration, the revolutionary force will be on an active defense mode and will not leave open any quarter for enemy treachery and attack. While the NPA exercises restraint in initiating offensive operations within the unilateral SOMO period, all its units, officers and Red fighters are to maintain heightened vigilance and thwart all enemy offensives and acts of treachery.

The US-Arroyo regime and its armed forces are growing ever desperate as its nine year counter-revolutionary Operation Plan (Oplan) Bantay Laya comes to a close with nothing but fictional "victories" to boast of. It has failed miserably in its avowed objective of reducing the armed revolutionary movement to inconsequentiality. Its campaign of assassinations, massacres, abductions, incarcerations, torture, forced evacuations and other gross human rights violations since 2001 has succeeded only in isolating this regime of terror.

Not only has the New People's Army (NPA) preserved its forces, it has expanded its units and areas of operation and has even added new guerrilla fronts in many regions in the country. Overall, it has strengthened and raised its military capability in the course of defeating the enemy's military campaigns and at the same time taking advantage of the enemy's weaknesses and uneven deployment of forces.

There is much to celebrate in the upcoming anniversary of the CPP and the new year as the Filipino people and its revolutionary forces look forward to achieving more brillant victories, making greater strides and advancing the people's war to the next higher stage.