AN EXERCISE IN WORLDMAKING 2009 - ISS

13 Imaging Women and Compassion in the New People’s Army 147
lished revolutionary government in some undisclosed areas and the continuing
support and collaboration with the masses.
Photographs as a medium engage its audience to be witnesses to a
particular temporal and spatial location. As a product of optical machine
such as the camera, photos have strong potential as evidence. This
makes it a good medium to build the narratives the CPP aims to elucidate.
The compilation has 111 captioned photographs occupying a page
each. In its foreword, their Spokesperson Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal
explains the aim in selecting photos for the compilation,
to show the breadth of activities of the NPA: crossing fields, mountains
and the heart of forests to travel from one barrio to the next; the masses
offering their homes; the enthusiastic greetings and steaming hot coffee
welcoming the comrades; the Red fighters as students and teachers,
friends and advisers, cooks and bakers, dentists and medics, fighters, and
partners in the people’s struggle. (Rosal in Communist Party of the Philippines
2004: ii)
Chosen for the exercise of discourse analysis are five of 22 photographs
accompanying the fourth section, “Fighting Army.” Among the
photos that show women fighters in the section, I chose three of four.
The other two photos were chosen because they show the NPA’s conduct
of war and its effort to be humane. To understand the context, I
will first deduce the intended audience of this book publication based on
its style and format. I will then briefly introduce the Communist Party of
the Philippines and the background of a civil war in the Philippines.
The body of the essay unpacks the text and photos using rhetorical
analysis. In this abridged version, I eliminated the rhetorical analysis on
the text, focusing instead on the visual analysis of the photographs.
Themes found throughout the text and the photos are then discussed in
turn. In its imaging agenda, the CPP/NPA aims to build credibility and
authority, a realm of logos; establish itself as an attractive organization, a
realm of ethos; and to collect sympathy, if not empathy, a realm of pathos
– thus rhetorical analysis proves valuable in this regard. The imaging
of women within the fighting army is highlighted in the selfidentification.
The effect of portraying women in the CPP/NPA identity-assertion
is then wrapped and concluded.