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The flash floods that killed more than 1,200 in the southern Philippines this month are providing Asia's longest-running Communist insurgency an opportunity to reinvent itself as a steward for the country's badly depleted environment—and that's triggering a fresh public-relations battle with the country's armed forces.

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European Pressphoto Agency

Flood victims walk through washed-up logs in a village in Iligan City, northern Mindanao, on Tuesday.

Government officials and activists have singled out illegal logging and decades of rapid deforestation as one of the main contributing factors behind the massive loss of life, which also left hundreds of thousands of people homeless.

When Typhoon Washi dumped a month's worth of rain on Mindanao island in just 12 hours, the result was a series of surging flash floods that barreled straight down the slopes of denuded mountains to hit densely populated areas in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities. The local government's failure to pay heed to national leaders' warnings about the size of the storm heading their way was another problem, but the aftermath is focusing squarely on the consequences of Filipinos mistreating their environment.

President Benigno Aquino III captured the public mood when he said during a visit to Cagayan de Oro last week that the Philippines hasn't learned the lessons of the past and must do better to safeguard its environment to avoid future calamities.

The hard-line Maoists of the New People's Army are preparing to go further, though.

In a telephone interview Thursday, rebel spokesman Jorge Madlos said the guerrillas will demand that major plantation companies such as Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. and Dole Food Co. pay up in recognition of the damage rebels say that their businesses have caused the local environment. "We aim to discuss with the companies how they can compensate the local people through our revolutionary cadres in the National Democratic Front," Mr. Madlos said. "If they don't participate, well, we'll have to see what happens."

A spokeswoman at Del Monte denied that the company contributed to deforestation in the area, and said that the firm began operations several decades ago on land that already had been cleared. Officials at Dole's Philippine operations couldn't be reached for comment.

The NPA, which the U.S. and European Union consider to be a foreign terrorist organization, has long extracted what it calls "revolutionary taxes" from businesses operating up and down the length of the Philippines. The rebels say they channel the money back into health programs for local populations and to finance their armed insurgency, which they have been waging since 1969.

Local development economists say the rebels deter investment in some of the most economically backward provinces of this scattered archipelago.

Now, though, political analysts say the NPA is trying to portray itself as a group of ecological avengers that punishes polluters and protects the local environment. In October, NPA guerrillas raided three mining sites in Mindanao, destroying valuable mining equipment and suspending operations at the Philippines' single largest nickel-producing mine in what they described at the time as an act of retribution.

The Philippine armed forces, though, are pushing back quickly. On Wednesday armed forces commander Lt. Gen. Jessie Dellosa said the rebel's new tack is a sign of that they are losing strength and are struggling to secure fresh funding overseas after the U.S. and Europe declared the New People's Army a foreign terrorist organization several years ago.

Lt. Gen. Dellosa said the rebels so far this year have extorted at least 300 million pesos, or nearly $7 million, in revolutionary taxes. That compares with about one billion pesos last year, when the rebels managed to extort vast sums from candidates campaigning in national elections.

"We are concerned with the direction they are heading in now," Lt. Gen. Dellosa told reporters. "Resorting to criminal activities for funding and attacking civilians to command obedience are signs of desperation."

At its peak in the early 1980s the NPA commanded more than 25,000 guerrillas and currently claims about 16,000 fighters in its ranks. The army puts the current figure substantially lower at about 5,000.

Write to James Hookway at james.hookway@wsj.com

Philippines, Philippines, environment, NPA, Cagayan de Oro, Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc., Jorge Madlos, Jessie Dellosa, New People's Army, Benigno Aquino III, armed forces

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