Visayan Peoples Front

Visayan People's Front (VPF) Flag

Overview

At the time of Belesia’s independence and formation as a Federation, numerous Christians, unhappy with what they saw of as Islamification of the islands, began open hostilities against the newly formed Belesian government. Arcadio Palmero, a professor at the University of Cebu formed the Visayan Peoples Front (VPF), an armed insurgent group, committed to establishing an independent entity composed of the islands of Panay, Negros, Cebu and Bohol. Initially, the stated goal was a separate secular state, but over time, the VPF also demanded the exclusion of Muslims and creation of a Christian nation. The government responded with a counter-insurgency strategy rooted in assassination, sabotage, and subversion. The violence between the factions as well as the Belesian government reached a peak a decade ago. Since then, all sides have pledged to a commitment to peace. However, skirmishes still occur, and the President has threatened to place entire islands under a state of martial law.

Organization Narrative

The VPF is an armed insurgent group committed to establishing an independent entity composed of the islands of Panay, Negros, Cebu and Bohol. Over time, the group, which originally sought the creation of a separate secular state, demanded the exclusion of Muslims and creation of a Christian nation. The government responded with a counter-insurgency strategy rooted in assassination, sabotage, and subversion. The violence between the factions as well as the Belesian government reached a peak a decade ago. Since then, all sides have pledged to a commitment to peace.

Areas of Operation

The VPF operates in Panay, Negros, Cebu, and Bohol, with the bulk of its operations focused on Panay. The majority of VPF forces, estimated to be in the vicinity of 4000 combatants, move between semi-permanent jungle forts in rural areas. Specialist cells, especially finance, recruitment, and intelligence operatives, are located in major urban centres. The VPF has its strongest presence in the Western and Southern areas in and around Panay.

Ideologies

Owing to the VPFs long history and changing purpose over time, its ideology is a strange mishmash of extreme left wing, evangelical Christian, and nationalist separatist. The core tenets of VPF beliefs, however, are reducible to the following general principles:

1. The Belesian government is a puppet organization, addicted to greed and exploitative bureaucratic capitalism. It does not serve the interests of Belesians in general and the Western Visayan peoples in particular. It is also beholden to foreign states, and not a true or legitimate government.
2. Capitalism in its current form is exploitative and plutocratic in nature, and counter to both natural social justice and core Christian principles.
3. The Western Visayas form a distinct ethno-cultural complex, which not only sits poorly within the Western construct of Belesian nationhood, but is also actively marginalized and discriminated against by the rest of Belesia, especially the central government.
4. Only the complete overthrow of the current Belesian government, and the establishment of a new Visayan state broadly modelled on Christian values can rectify the issues facing Belesia today. Violence is a valid and necessary means to achieving this.

VPF material tends to be a hybrid of the linguistic and visual styles of Che Guevara’s ‘war communism’, local Belesian, and religious materials. While the more complex ideological positions and beliefs may shift rapidly, the core narratives of ethno-cultural exceptionalism and the decadence of the Belesian government are consistent throughout their messaging and stated belief systems.

Membership and Demographics

The VPF has declined significantly since its inception shortly after the end of WWII. At its peak in latter half of the twentieth century, it was believed to have in excess of twenty thousand armed and active members. It now has an estimated strength of four thousand, mostly located in rural areas, but with logistics, finance, recruiting, and assassination cells in major urban centres.

VPF members are generally youthful, average age bracket being 25-35 years of age. The majority of combatants now active within the group represent a new generation of hard line insurgents, often radicalised in online communities. While the bulk of combatants are in rural areas, recruits usually originate from urban areas, most notably universities and churches. Roughly 30% of combatants are female, and there are persistent rumours and reports of sexual assault and harassment against VPF female members.

Finance, logistics, and support units are a hybrid of loose affiliates and sympathisers and core specialists. The specialists tend to be older, usually veterans of the peak era of the insurgency (1960-89). These are few in number, almost exclusively male, and full time, combat tested guerrilla commanders. Affiliates and sympathisers come from a broad cross section of society, are far more numerous than the core specialists, and often connect to the VPF through church and organized labour groups. Fundraising and logistics support are often carried out in disaggregated fashion by sympathisers and affiliates, sometimes under the co-ordination of a specialist commander.

Operational Profile

Kinetic

Like many insurgent organizations, the VPFs priorities are split between fundraising, tactical survival, and strategic goals. Core kinetic activities often involve melding of these imperatives, with harassing attacks on police and paramilitary enforcement units also being used to acquire weapons and valuables for sale. The provision of security and logistics support for various criminal trafficking enterprises is relatively new. It is thought that recent decline in membership, coupled with more vigorous enforcement and harsher and more restrictive anti-terror laws have created a funding ‘squeeze’, forcing the VPF to expand into operations which would previously have been considered ideologically and politically unacceptable.

The VPF most frequently conducts:

• Kidnap for Ransom
• Political and other reprisal assassinations
• Murder for Hire
• Sabotage
• Terrorist demonstrations of force
• Small-scale raids and robberies on government and police
• Bank robbery
• Extortion and intimidation

Non-Kinetic

The VPF has a moderately sophisticated media and propaganda capability, with its strongest emphasis on direct interpersonal communications. Its younger members are currently driving an evolution in online broadcast messaging, but the core of their information activities are still based around university socialist and Christian societies, unions, pamphlet drops, and pirate radio broadcasts. Cyber capabilities are nil to non-existent, but recent interactions with the Tantoco Cartel, who have a highly developed cyber capability, may see this change. Another important activity is the provision of paramilitary training, which is an important source of funds, and also helps to foster relationships with various criminal and insurgent actors both locally and throughout the region.

The VPF’s typical non-kinetic activities are:

• Propaganda leaflet drops
• Outreach visits to remote villages and townships
• Collection of ‘revolutionary taxes’
• Active membership in student and labour organizations
• Provision of paramilitary weapons and warfare training
• Drugs trafficking support – security and ‘safe corridors’
• People trafficking support – security and ‘safe corridors’
• Arms trafficking

Recruitment

The VPF still relies primarily on direct interpersonal interactions to recruit new members. As with most quasi-socialist movements, their primary support base exists in urban student and working class populations, and the VPF have a prominent and dedicated presence in university student societies, labour unions and organizations, church groups – especially youth groups, and underprivileged areas.

VPF cadres will also conduct periodic ‘outreach’ tours, where a sizeable armed contingent will visit a rural township or village and provide gifts of food and drink, usually accompanied by organized talks and events designed to spread VPF messaging and ideology.

Younger VPF members are driving a digitisation of some recruitment activities, engaging in targeted social media based radicalisation through interaction in various online groups and the publication of key leader hagiographies and public relations style news items.