military arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines, Marxist-Leninist (CPP-ML), which is a Communist organization dedicated to achieving power in the Philippines by means of revolutionary insurrection. The CPP-ML was originally a Maoist faction that broke away from the largely passive, Soviet-oriented Philippine Communist Party in 1968–69 and formed the New People's Army shortly afterward. The NPA soon began guerrilla warfare against the regime of President Ferdinand Marcos, assassinating government officials and ambushing army troops. It gradually increased its strength through the 1970s and '80s, growing from about 350 armed members in 1971 to more than 20,000 by the late 1980s. The NPA spread from its original base in northern Luzon to islands throughout the Philippine archipelago, fashioning a nationwide network of supporters in rural areas and later in major cities as well. By the late 1980s the NPA had become the chief threat to the elected government of President Corazon Aquino, with whom the NPA refused to come to a negotiated settlement.