Rebolusyonaryong Hukbong Bayan (RHB) is the armed wing of the Marxist-Leninist Party of the Philippines (MLPP).  Since its foundation in 1998, the RHB has been responsible for numerous acts of violence against rival terrorist groups, civilians, and the Philippine Army. <P><br /><br />The RHB emerged from a split in the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).  The CPP along with its armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA), was formed in the late 1960s and soon grew to be one of the largest left-wing revolutionary groups in Southeast Asia.  The CPP advocates the overthrow of the Philippine government, and wants to replace it with a communist government based on Marxist-Leninist-Maoist principles.  To obtain this goal, the NPA has waged a violent insurgency throughout the country.  <P><br /><br />In the 1997, the CPP began a policy of moving many of its urban cadres to rural areas in order to set up bases for peasant warfare.  This was done in an effort to spur on the insurgency in accordance with strict Maoist principles.  Maoist guerrilla warfare calls for the formation of a peasant army in order to rise up and surround urban areas.  The focus on rural areas as opposed to cities was a longstanding point of contention within the CPP.  In 1992, the debate led to the expulsion of many CPP members.  Those expelled would go on to form several new left-wing political-military outfits.  In 1997, history would repeat itself. <P><br /><br />Members of the CPP in Central Luzon (a region in the Philippines) rejected the transfer of their urban members to rural areas.  These dissenters argued that the flat terrain of Luzon was not conducive to Maoist guerrilla warfare, and believed that the party's aims would be better served through service in legal NGO's and political movements in the cities.  The leadership of the CPP reacted to this argument by expelling the dissenters, who were said to be led by a trio of men called the "Magdangal-Olive-Bill clique." <P><br /><br />In September 1998, Nicholas Magdangal (a pseudonym for Francisco Pascual) announced the formation of a new bloc of leftists, formed from the CPP purges.  Magdangal/Pascual alleged that the over 500 individuals who were expelled from CPP had agreed to form a new party.  That party would eventually become the Marxist-Leninist Party of the Philippines (MLPP), the political wing of the Rebolusyonaryong Hukbong Bayan (RHB).  <P><br /><br />The RHB is not truly a separate entity from the MLPP, and its ideology is no different from that of its political forebear.  In fact, from what little information is known about the MLPP and RHB, their ideology appears to be nearly identical to that of the CPP.  To that end, the MLPP-RHB is a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist group that advocates the overthrow of the Philippine government through violent struggle. <P><br /><br />Although the RHB has been involved in terrorist activity against civilians (notably journalists) and the Philippine Army, the bulk of RHB violence is an outgrowth of the ongoing feud between the MLPP and the CPP. Despite their similar ideology and aims, the two groups have continually battled each other, with many observers believing that their animosity does not concern philosophy, but is a turf war over extortion and other criminal operations.  In any case, the armed wing of the CPP, the PLA, has waged a brutal crackdown on RHB cadres, leading to reprisals which have cost the lives of many on both sides, as well as many civilians caught in the crossfire.  The Philippine Army has also cracked down on RHB members, but seems content to focus mostly on the larger PLA, and has let the two groups kill each other as they please. <br />