AN EXERCISE IN WORLDMAKING 2009 - ISS

158 TERESA LORENA JOPSON
depicts the NPA as a legitimate authority to advance its ethos. This is
particularly crucial since the NPA is an underground organization that
aims to establish acceptance and cooperation from conservative sectors
that it can tap as tactical allies.
One of its strengths as an organization is its claim of progressive
stance that incorporates the realization of rights to its agenda. Its attempt
at breaking stereotypes of women and imaging them as partners in, and
constitutive of the revolution is a positive image that enhances its identity.
If the imaging of the NPA as compassionate is a response to the terrorist
label that has been decreed by the United States government, it
makes its case publicly denying that the organization is not to be feared
by the common people. The terrorist tag is therefore being fought out in
the public sphere. In Pulang Mandirigma, the CPP makes sure that it stacks
the cards on its favor. Its emphasis on human right and humanitarian
conduct of war prove to be effective in mobilizing pathos – identification,
sympathy, and support from its audiences.
Using rhetorical analysis to unpack ‘Fighting Army’ illustrates that
strength and compassion are the NPA’s main claims to ethos and pathos
respectively. The effect of portraying women and compassion in the
NPA improves its identity as an army.
SOURCES
Images
Balancing Act. In Communist Party of the Philippines Information Bureau
(2004) Fighting Army, Pulang Mandirigma, p. 101.
Hand Struggle. In Communist Party of the Philippines Information Bureau
(2004) Fighting Army, Pulang Mandirigma, p. 105.
Hug of Appreciation. In Communist Party of the Philippines Information Bureau
(2004) Fighting Army, Pulang Mandirigma, p. 120.
Release. In Communist Party of the Philippines Information Bureau (2004)
Fighting Army, Pulang Mandirigma, p. 119.
Sure Shots. In Communist Party of the Philippines Information Bureau (2004)
Fighting Army, Pulang Mandirigma, p. 108.