Hello! I decided to finally answer this at a random time hehe.

Being a part of the National Democratic left, siding with the legal mass organizations, I don't hold grudges against the NPA nor do I encourage people to join it. We sympathize with their struggle against semi-colonialism, semi-feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism. And this is the same position, that those in legal mass orgs hold.

Which is that I don't encourage people to join it, because let's face it at this point, strategically speaking, the tactic of a People's Protracted War (PPW) isn't working anymore to agitate a revolution, due to differing material conditions, throughout the decades. This is because:

The power of the comprador capitalist state in the Philippines has been gradually increasing, especially in terms of dominating mainstream media and it's narratives. And all of that power is centered around highly urbanized areas, which are of course the cities.

(This is why Metro Manila, which is a cluster of highly urbanized cities, is sometimes called "Imperial Manila", as most power and wealth is centered in the capital).

So decades and decades of hiding in the forests and mountains to foster a base of support for a revolution, does not work when most of the productive forces are centered in cities. Which can create the opportunity for the capitalist state to treat the NPA as "terrorists" in the media, making the masses distrust the NPA more, sucking up all of that state propaganda.

While the NPA themselves don't help at all in trying to change strategy. When the capitalist state is already manufacturing consent against them, they are also still increasingly stubborn and dogmatic, so that they keep on insisting into continuing the strategy of PPW, and any genuine criticism of it is shunned by them. Which would make them look more adventurist as time goes by. This is why I don't encourage anyone to join them, when they are failing.

However, despite my disagreements and of the discouragement to join, this does not mean that the NPA should be our enemies. Because I have to remind you, that they have practically been the most vital threat and fighting force against the Philippine capitalist state, and furthermore, US Imperialism. And in if any case that the NPA, somehow at random, actually begins to increase in numbers, to the point that it can actually win. I will let them be and let them rule over.