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Civil conflict in the Philippines: A Visual History

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Visual history of a war

Since 1969: Asia's longest communist insurgency and the Moro Muslim struggle in Mindanao, through Marcos, martial law, peace deals and Duterte's wars.

Fought
1969 to present
Duration
57 years
Dates
1969 to present (ongoing)
Deaths
About 120,000 to 150,000 in the Moro conflict; 40,000 or more in the communist insurgency
State
Armed Forces of the Philippines and police; paramilitaries; US support
Insurgents
Communist Party of the Philippines and NPA; MNLF, MILF; Abu Sayyaf, Maute group and ISIS-affiliates; BIFF
Status
Bangsamoro autonomy in force since 2019; NPA reduced to about 1,500 fighters; ISIS remnants in Mindanao

The Philippines' internal conflicts date from the founding of the New People's Army in March 1969 by the Communist Party of Jose Maria Sison, and the Moro National Liberation Front's rising in Mindanao after the Jabidah massacre of 1968 and Marcos's martial law of 1972. The communist insurgency peaked at 25,000 fighters in the 1980s and continues at low level despite Sison's death in 2022; the Moro conflict passed from the MNLF's 1976 Tripoli agreement and 1996 peace to the MILF, which signed a comprehensive agreement in 2014 and now governs the Bangsamoro autonomous region, while Abu Sayyaf and ISIS-aligned groups fought on, seizing Marawi for five months in 2017. About 150,000 have died in the Moro wars and 40,000 in the communist conflict, and both continue.

When it was fought: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Civil conflict in the Philippines. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

14001500160017001800190020002100Civil conflict in the Philippines (1969 to present)Open: Spanish EmpireSpanish Empire (1492 to 1976)Open: British EmpireBritish Empire (1583 to 1997)Open: Dutch EmpireDutch Empire (1602 to 1975)Open: United StatesUnited States (1776 to present)Open: Third Portuguese EmpireThird Portuguese Empire (1822 to 1999)Open: Second French colonial empireSecond French colonial empire (1830 to 1980)Open: Philippine-American WarPhilippine-American War (1899 to 1902)Open: World War IIWorld War II (1939 to 1945)Open: Cold WarCold War (1947 to 1991)Open: Myanmar conflictMyanmar conflict (1948 to present)Open: Papua conflictPapua conflict (1962 to present)Open: Third Indochina WarThird Indochina War (1978 to 1991)

NPA armed strength

06.2512.518.75251970: 0.51980: 81987: 251995: 62010: 52023: 1.5197019801990200020102020thousands of fighters (government and party estimates)

Timeline of the Civil conflict in the Philippines

  1. 1968
    Jabidah massacre; CPP refounded
  2. 1969
    NPA founded
  3. 1972
    Martial law; MNLF war
  4. 1976
    Tripoli agreement
  5. 1986
    People Power revolution
  6. 1996
    MNLF final peace agreement
  7. 2014
    Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro
  8. 2017
    Siege of Marawi
  9. 2019
    Bangsamoro autonomous region created

Marcos, martial law and the NPA

Sison refounded the communist party on Maoist lines in 1968 and Bernabe Buscayno formed the NPA in 1969 with 60 men; Marcos used their threat to declare martial law in September 1972, and repression drove thousands to the guerrillas. By the mid-1980s the NPA had 25,000 fighters and 'sparrow units' assassinating police in Manila. Cory Aquino's revolution of 1986 and the vigilante and military campaigns after her failed ceasefire, plus the party's own murderous purges of suspected informers, cut it back; the NPA has fought on through every administration, its leaders exiled in the Netherlands and its talks with Manila repeatedly collapsing.

The Moro wars

Muslim Mindanao, colonised by Christian settlers, exploded after the 1968 killing of Moro recruits on Corregidor; Nur Misuari's MNLF fought a full-scale war in 1972-1976 that killed some 60,000 before Gaddafi brokered the Tripoli agreement on autonomy. The MILF split off in 1978 as an Islamist alternative; the MNLF signed a final peace in 1996 and Misuari became governor of the ARMM. Abu Sayyaf, founded in 1991 with al-Qaeda links, turned to kidnapping and bombing, including the SuperFerry 14 bombing that killed 116 in 2004; US special forces have advised in Mindanao since 2002.

Bangsamoro and Marawi

MILF-government talks survived the 2015 Mamasapano clash and produced the Bangsamoro Organic Law of 2018; the MILF took over an interim autonomous government in 2019 and elections are pending. In May 2017 the Maute group and Abu Sayyaf's Isnilon Hapilon seized Marawi city under the ISIS flag; the five-month siege killed over 1,000 and destroyed the city. Duterte's separate war on drugs killed thousands. The NPA persists in the countryside; the MNLF's Misuari has been reconciled; and the Marcos family returned to the presidency in 2022.

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

Wars of the same era and region

8 surprising things about the Civil conflict in the Philippines

  1. The NPA insurgency, begun in 1969, is Asia's longest-running communist rebellion.
  2. Marcos justified martial law in 1972 partly by staging or exaggerating communist attacks, including an ambush on his defence minister.
  3. Gaddafi's Libya brokered the first Moro peace deal in 1976 and Malaysia the MILF's in 2014.
  4. The 2017 siege of Marawi was the longest urban battle in modern Philippine history and left the city in ruins.
  5. The communist party's leader Jose Maria Sison lived in exile in Utrecht from 1987 until his death in 2022.
  6. The 2015 Mamasapano raid that killed 44 police commandos nearly derailed the Bangsamoro law.
  7. Abu Sayyaf's beheading of foreign hostages, including a Canadian in 2016, made it notorious; it was named for the Afghan warlord Sayyaf.
  8. The Bangsamoro region's name means 'Moro nation', from the Spanish word for the Muslims they fought for 300 years.

Sources

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