Harassment and abuses against peasant activists became common as United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) and the Philippine Constabulary (civilian police) hunted them.

The arrival of the Americans was characterized by the expansion of capitalism already introduced by the Spaniards in the encomienda system; there was an exponential increase in the amount of free trade between the Philippines and the United States of America.

[3] Landowners favored cash crops for export to the US, such as tobacco and sugar cane, over the usual rice or cereals, resulting in a smaller supply of staple foods for the peasant farmers.

Landowners had previously attended social functions such as the weddings and baptisms of their tenants, sponsored food during fiestas and conducted land inspections.

Traditional landowners wanted to modernize their farms and employ tenant-farmers as wage-earners with legal contracts in order to maximize their profit.

This changed the social relations of the countryside, as indicated by comments from a landowner in Nueva Ecija:[4] In the old days … the landlord-tenant relationship was a real paternalistic one.

[3] The early 1930s saw the formation of many small peasant unions, including: The objective of these movements was broadly to revert to the traditional tenancy system.

The means of protest varied from strikes, to petitions of government officials (including the president) to court cases against landlords to winning local office.

[4] They participated in 1940s election by joining with the Partido Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (PSP), a rural peasant political party, and ran with a complete slate of candidates under the Popular Front ticket in Pampanga.

Although Pedro Abad Santos, the founder of the PSP, did not win a seat, his party became synonymous with the peasant movements and eventually with the Huks.

[7] Prior to the war, none of the top leaders had any connections with the PKP,[4] and interviews conducted by Kerkvliet with members afterwards also points to a non-bias towards any ideology.

Not only was life economically unsustainable for the Huks, their hardships were aggravated by the hostility and repression they experienced from the USAFFE soldiers, the Philippine Constabulary, and landlords.

[5] Consisting of 109 Huks, Squadron 77 was returning home from Pampanga were surrounded by American and Filipino soldiers, disarmed and brought before USAFFE Col Adonias Maclang, who ordered them shot and buried in a mass grave.

[8] Furthermore, in February 1945, the US Counter Intelligence Corps (USCIC) decided that the only way to end what they saw as "Huk domination of the area"[4] was to arrest the prominent leaders of the Hukbalahap.

Although at the top levels leaders were constantly negotiating with each other, the situation on the ground between the Huks and the US and Philippine forces was ripe for a full-scale rebellion.

In the words of Huk supreme commander Taruc, the truce is "in effect only at the top level, between the government representatives and peasant leaders.

There were "landowner-tenant disputes over high interest rates, loans, rent payments, and sharing agricultural expenses sometimes led to evictions.

Representatives such as Taruc, Alejandrino, and Juan Feleo were accompanied by MP guards and government officials to try and pacify peasant groups, without success.

[4] On August 24, 1946, Feleo, on his way back to Manila after a pacification sortie in Cabiao, was stopped by a large band of "armed men in fatigue uniforms" in Gapan, Nueva Ecija.

Yours is the power now to plunge them into chaos and horrible strife, or pacify and unite them as brother Filipinos in the spirit of liberty.He then joined with the peasants and revived the Hukbalahap General Headquarters, beginning the Huk insurrection.

They retreated to the mountains once more in fear for their lives and renamed themselves Hukbong Magpapalaya ng Bayan (HMB) or People's Liberation Army.

[13] On October 18, 1950, the entire secretariat of the Central Committee of the PKP, including General Secretary José Lava, was arrested following the earlier capture of the Politburo in Manila.

The decline is attributed to two main reasons: The Huk Rebellion was finally put down through a series of reforms and military victories by Magsaysay, who became the seventh President.

Outraged by stories, and in many cases direct experience, of Japanese brutality, and sometimes fearful for their personal safety, many young women from Central and Southern Luzon and even Manila responded to the call for mobilization.

Aside from the men, there were a surprisingly large number of women volunteers joining, being moved by the atrocities and abuses committed by the Japanese against the people.

Often appearing inconspicuously, women were less suspicious in the eyes of the Japanese and moved freely around the villages, ostensibly just talking to people but actually exchanging information on guerrilla activities.

Organizers such as Teofista Valerio and Elang Santa Ana understood that they were representatives of the People’s Liberation Army in the barrios.Women were ideal couriers, and Huk leaders quickly recognized their potential, skill, and willingness to carry out this hazardous task.

In the eyes of the Japanese, women were innocuous and unthreatening, figures whose presence in the barrios, usually with baskets of fruit and vegetables, gossiping mindlessly with their neighbors, was unremarkable.

Women also played a major role in the intelligence networks, the part of the communication division that gathered information about the activities of the Japanese in the barrios.

They usually handled money for the movement, making sure that they had enough funds to give the guerrillas what they needed, especially food.Another key task the women had was the traditional role as the homemaker and caretaker of the family.