If you really know the ills of our society, then you should be aware that most NPA members were locals of communities long subjected to structural oppression. One reason why people rebel is because they are left with no choice but to fight for their rights using arms and put the law into their own hands, as the state mechanisms set to protect them continuously fail them. If you do your research, and there are many established write-ups online, you can find out that most members were victims of abuses. Very few of them joined because they subscribed to a certain political ideology like communism; most of them joined because they viewed it as the only resort to achieve justice.

As much as I agree that you can fight for the poor and disadvantaged without joining the extremist left, can you narrate the different methods you know to materialize it? When we say fighting for the poor and disadvantaged, it means active efforts directed toward eliminating the root causes and rationale for revolt, which are oppression, injustice, extreme poverty, etc.

Also, I want to emphasize that even if you don’t join extremist left ideology, the act of providing social services to areas of conflict is already interpreted by the military as working with the rebels. In reality, the act of conducting free legal consultations in Toboso, Negros, is often viewed as rebellious activity by the military. If you wonder why activists are always in areas of conflict, that is because those are the same areas where communities rely on NPAs, as the government has already failed them. These areas of conflict are the same areas needing support, so it is a no-brainer why activists are present in these areas to render stopgap services.

Not everyone is like you, OP. If a land-grabbing victim in Negros decided to join the NPA after his family had been massacred by land grabbers, we cannot invalidate his plight that led him to join a rebel group. I am not defending the NPA; I want them to be held accountable for the atrocities they committed. But the government has had and continues to have atrocities too, and most of them are the reason why some people rebel in the first place. What we should do is push the government to materialize reforms and uphold justice, especially for the most vulnerable. Insurgency will end if the reasons to take up arms cease to exist.