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City councilor, lawyer, activists included in Negros town police’s poster of Reds

BACOLOD CITY — A councilor of the northern Negros Occidental city of Escalante, a lawyer who has longed worked with peasant and human rights groups, and a number of current and former leaders of activist groups were among more than 60 supposed communist rebels whose faces were printed on a police poster.

The National Federation of Sugar Workers issued an alert with a copy of the poster it said was being pinned up by the police force of the central Negros town of Moises Padilla.

The alert was released Monday, the same day human rights groups reported the arrest in Tarlac of Australian nun Patricia Fox, NDS, a volunteer with the Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura, by Immigration officers.

At the top of the poster is the message, “CNN PERSONALITIES, if seen in the area, please text 09099191720.”

CNN is the acronym used by state security forces to refer to members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

PNP poster accusing well-known personalities in Negros of being underground revolutionaries. (NFSW photo)

Among the legal personalities whose faces are on the poster are Karapatan-Negros secretary general Clarizza Singson, Zara Alvarez of the Negros Island Health Integrated Program, UMA secretary general John Lozande,NFSW secretary general Christian Tuayon, National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers-Negros secretary general Benjamin Ramos, Escalante Councilor Bernardino Patigas, Julius Dagatan, Ronald Evidente, Ma Rina Amacio, Rogina Quilop, Lary Ocena and Anecita Rojo.

A number of them are also included in the list of alleged rebels that forms part of the Department of Justice’s petition to have the CPP and NPA proscribed as “terrorist organizations.”

On the other hand, Amihan, the National Federation of Peasant Women, said Fox was arrested around 3 p.m. and is currently detained at the Bureau of Immigration’s intelligence bureau.

The group said the nun, who joined a recent international solidarity and fact-finding mission in Mindanao that was reported harassed and hounded by state forces, could be deported.

Sr. Patricia Fox, NDS, in detention at the Bureau of Immigration. (Photo by Atty Ma Sol Taule)

Fox’ arrest came a day after Giacomo Filibeck, deputy secretary-general of the Party of European Socialists, was barred from entering the country in Cebu, where he was scheduled to attend the congress of Akbayan.

Filibeck, who visited the country last year as a member of a human rights fact-finding mission that criticized the government’s bloody war on drugs, was informed he was on a blacklist order and deported.

Duterte orders negotiators to work on resuming talks with Reds

The Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) have stepped closer to resuming formal peace negotiations.

In a tweet Wednesday night, Presidential peace process adviser Jesus Dureza announced that GRP President Rodrigo Duterte has directed his peace negotiators to work on resuming formal talks with the NDFP.

“President Duterte directed during the Cabinet meeting today (Wednesday) to work on the resumption of peace talks with the CPP/NPA/NDF [Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army] with clear instructions on the importance of forging a ceasefire agreement to stop mutual attacks and fighting while talks are underway,” Dureza said.

Dureza added that Duterte has said to give the peace process “…another last chance”.

He said the Duterte has also committed “to provide support” to the revolutionary movement as long as it stops imposing and collecting taxes.

NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison for his part said that formal peace negotiations are the right venues to deal with GRP’s issues and complaints such as ceasefire proposals and the NPA’s revolutionary taxation activities.

The resumption of peace talks between the GRP and NDFP negotiating panels is needed precisely to deal with substantive issues and complaints,” Sison said.

Sison said that in the same round of formal talks, the parties can present conflicting positions and subsequently seek to solve problems “on mutually acceptable grounds.”

He said that both negotiating panels already have a draft of the agreement on coordinated unilateral ceasefires, “which is under the watch of a joint national ceasefire committee.”

“This draft agreement is in effect the start of a bilateral ceasefire agreement. It is a significant step towards the Comprehensive Agreement on the End of Hostilities and Disposition of Forces,” he added.

Sison also said that the GRP and NDFP has already achieved substantial consensus on the general principles of agrarian reform and rural development and national industrialization and economic development, which both parties acknowledge are the most important parts of the prospective social and economic reforms agreements.

He added that there is also a draft amnesty proclamation to release all the political prisoners listed by the NDFP in compliance with the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.

“When the GRP and NDFP negotiating panels meet, they can be confident of achieving substantial success. Without a formal meeting of the panels, there can only be an acrimonious public exchange of complaints and demands, which appear or sound like the preconditions prohibited by The Hague Joint Declaration,” Sison said.

The Hague Joint Declaration requires that no side shall impose on the other side preconditions that negate the character and purpose of peace negotiations.

“The conflicting parties become negotiating parties precisely to thresh out serious differences and complaints and seek the solutions to achieve a just and lasting peace,” Sison explained.

“As a matter of course, the two panels shall reaffirm all the existing agreements by way of ending the previous termination of the peace negotiations. It logically follows that the two panels shall cooperate in doing away with the obstacles and hindrances to the agreements and to the entire peace process,” he added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

 

Satur’s lawyers seek his dismissal from DOJ list

Lawyers have asked the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 19 to dismiss the petition against former Representative Saturnino “Satur” Ocampo in connection with the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) move to have the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) proscribed as terrorist organizations.

In a notice of special apperance filed Wednesday, March 20, the Public Interest Law Center (PILC) said the respondent in the DOJ petition were the CPP and the NPA and not Ocampo.

“Obviously, there is a material discrepancy between the statements in the summons and the allegations in the petition,” the PILC motion said.

“The summons indubitably designated movant Ocampo as a party respondent, in the stead of the actual respondents, the CPP and the NPA,” it added.

Ocampo was among hundreds listed in the DOJ petition as “known officers” of the CPP and the NPA the Rodrigo Duterte government wanted proscribed as terrorist organizations.

The PILC however denied Ocampo is a party to the instant [DOJ] proceeding.

“The Honorable Court cannot indulge on the drastically erroneous premise that movant is a respondent, as there is no basis whatsoever to implead him,” the PILC said.

The lawyers said Ocampo vehemently denies he is an officer, a member or even a representative the CPP and the NPA and therefore has no legal, vested, material interest insofar as the petition for proscription of the CPP and NPA is concerned.

In the PILC motion’s prefatory statement, Ocampo said, “I am Saturnino Ocampo. Journalist. I am NOT a terrorist.”

PILC said Ocampo cannot be made party to the instant proceeding against the CPP and the NPA that are entities with personalities separate from his.

“[N]othing in the [DOJ] petition and its annexes indicate that movant Saturnino Ocampo is indeed an officer, member or representative of the CPP and NPA,” PILC said.

The PILC said annexes to the DOJ petition naming Ocampo as one of the members of the CPP Central Committee were all issued in 2006 and has also failed to prove he still remains as member or officer of the CPP and the NPA.

Ocampo served as Bayan Muna Representative in the 12th to 14th Congress in 2001 to 2010. He currently serves as the chairperson of the Makabayan Coalition that has seven representatives in the 17th Congress.

Ocampo’s lawyers have also denied he has committed any terrorist act.

“It is respectfully prayed of the Honorable Court that the instant Petition BE DISMISSED for lack of jurisdiction over the person of movant Saturnino Ocampo and for failure of the petition to state a cause of action against him,” PILC said.

The PILC motion is the first to be filed against the DOJ petition to have the CPP and the NPA proscribed as terrorist organizations. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Thousands of complaints since CARHRIHL signing, NDFP says

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) said nearly seven thousand complaints of human rights and international humanitarian law violations have been received by its Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).

At a forum marking the 20th anniversarry of the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) at St. Scholastica’s College in Manila Friday, the NDFP said a total of 6,898 complaints have since been lodged at the JMC from its establishment in June 2004 to March 14, 2018, nearly six years after the signing of the agreement.

The NDFP said 4,886 complaints have been received by the GRP section while 2,012 have been received by the NDFP section of the JMC.

The NDFP said it is incumbent upon the parties to avail of the monitoring mechanism for the submission of complaints, instead of resorting to drastic means such as terminating the formal talks every time an armed incident happens.

President Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly blamed the New People’s Army (NPA) whenever he cancelled formal talks with the NDFP.

After Duterte again cancelled talks last November, his government has since asked the courts to proscribe the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the NPA as terrorist organizations.

The CPP and NPA are allied organizations of the NDFP.

Peace advocates and St. Scholastica’s College-Manila students who attended the event marking the 20th anniversary of the signing of the CARHRIHL Friday morning.

Peace advocates who attended the CARHRIHL anniversary event, however, called on Duterte to respect the human rights agreement and resume the peace process with the NDFP.

“At this time,  when the Duterte administration appears focused on moves like pulling out of the International Criminal Court and declaring more than 600 persons as terrorists under the Human Security Act, we urge President Rodrigo R. Duterte to instead focus the attention of his government on faithful adherence to the principles of human rights and international humanitarian law,” the advocates said in a statement.

The group added that CARHRIHL’s full implementation not only provides additional protection for the people amid armed conflict, it will also propel both the GRP and the NDFP to resume peace negotiations.

The statement was signed by Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez of the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform, Bishop Reuel Marigza of Pilgrims for Peace, Kaye Limpado of Sulong CARHRIHL, Saharon Cabusao of Kapayapaan Campaign for Just and Lasting Peace, Benjie Valbuena of ACT for Peace and Rey Casambre of the Philippine Peace Center.

Iñiguez in his own speech called on both the GRP and the NDFP to convene the JMC to discuss the complaints it received.

“Convene the JMC. Confront the many complaints from the people. According to Article 1 of the Final Provisions of the CARHRIHL, the JMC is still operative and it has to regularly convene until it is formally dissolved,” Iñiguez said.

“The sincerity of both parties can only be measured by how faithfully they implement their agreements. We call on the GRP and the NDFP, ‘Respect and vigorously implement all agreements!’” the prelate added.

Since the Gloria Arroyo administration, however, the GRP has repeatedly refused or caused the cancellation of JMC meetings to discuss the complaints.

The Benigno Aquino administration of the GRP has even asked the royal Norwegian Government, Third Party Facilitator to the peace process, to stop funding the committee’s operations.

The current GRP administration, for its part, has convened the JMC with the NDFP during and in between its four fomal rounds of negotiations with the NDFP, but no actual complaints have been tabled before Duterte cancelled all meetings and negotiations last year. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Duterte an ‘arrogant fake’–CPP

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) called President Rodrigo Duterte an “arrogant fake” for cussing the drivers and small operators who recently held a two-day nationwide transport strike against the government’s planned phase out of the iconic jeepney.

Nagpupuputok ang butse mo sa ibinubugang usok ng mga jeep, pero tameme ka naman sa napakakapal na usok ng mga coal-fired power plant na lumalason sa kapaligiran sa buong bansa,” the CPP said in a statement. [You are angry at the smoke belched by the jeepney but you are silent about the thick smoke from coal-fired power plants that poison the entire country’s environment.]

“The truth is, you just want drivers and small operators to die in hardship and poverty in order to serve your true masters,” the group added.

In his speech at the Federalism Summit in Naga City Tuesday, Duterte unleashed another cuss-filled tirade against the protesters,

Mahirap kayo? P*******a, magtiis kayo sa hirap at gutom. Wala akong pakialam!” Duterte told the protesters. [You say you are poor? You sons of bitches, put up with hardship and hunger. I don’t have a care!]

The CPP said Duterte again showed his true color.

[G]alit sa mga gutom at mahirap, laluna ang mga marunong manindigan at lumaban para sa kanilang interes,” the CPP said. [He is against the hungry and the poor, especially those who know how to stand up and struggle for their interests.]

In his speech, Duterte also branded transport group Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide, human rights group Karapatan and Kilusang Mayo Uno as CPP fronts.

Dictator’s mindset

Other groups also condemned Duterte’s statements against the protesters.

“We say to Mr. Duterte: please stick to the issue! His self-indulged blabbing over the national television, refuses to address the real threat to the livelihood of the country’s jeepney drivers being posed by the Jeepney Phaseout Scheme,” KMU said.

KMU said Duterte refuses to listen to the jeepney drivers and operators’ legitimate demand and logical reasoning to junk the jeepney phaseout scheme.

“Duterte is proving he himself is a front of the oligarchs, such as the Ayalas, Pangilinan, and Cojuangco, who will be raking super profits from this scheme. The same oligarchs whom he handed control over MRT/LRT, express ways, telecommunication, power, and water,” KMU said.

“Duterte has the mindset of a dictator! When the poor exercise their right to speak up against threats to their livelihood, he brands their actions as ‘conspiracy’ and ‘rebellion’,” the group added.

Anakbayan Metro Manila burns an image of Duterte following the President’s cuss-filled tirade against striking jeepney drivers. (Photo by Kathy Yamzon)

Meanwhile, youth group Anakbayan-Metro Manila slipped through heavily-guarded Mendiola Street to hold a lightning rally at Malacañan Palace Thursday and condemn “Duterte’s inhumane and anti-poor statement” on the recently concluded transport strike.

The group burned Duterte’s image depicting him as “anti-poor, anti-people, and subservient to foreign masters” at the Palace’s Gate 7.

Anakbayan said it also holds Duterte accountable for the extrajudicial killings as well as the violent demolition and harassment of residents in Floodway, Pasig. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Duterte has never been an ally–Sison

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison denied the revolutionary movement in the Philippines has ever been in an alliance or in a united front with President Rodrigo Duterte.

According to a report published on the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) website, Sison said in a speech last September 15 in Utrecht, The Netherlands his former student has never been the movement’s ally despite his claim there is a “Duterte faction” among revolutionaries in southern Mindanao.

Sison said their southern Mindanao comrades described Duterte a bureaucrat capitalist or “a politician who creates private wealth for himself using his public office.”

Duterte is capable of saying and doing anything that is left, middle or right, depending on what serves him from moment to moment, Sison said.

In a speech at the reopening of the NDFP’s International Office in the Dutch city, Sison said some people misunderstood their efforts to promote the peace negotiations between the Duterte regime and the Left already involves a working alliance.

Sison added that while Duterte publicly offered as many as four cabinet posts to the CPP, it cannot accept any government position while there are talks.

The NDFP instead nominated Judy Taguiwalo to the Department of Social Work and Development, Rafael Mariano to the Department of Agrarian Reform and Liza Maza to the National Anti-Poverty Commission.

The NDFP said their nominees are “patriotic and progressive individuals who are highly qualified, honest and diligent.”

Taguiwalo and Mariano, however, were rejected by the Commission on Appointments (CA). Both said they felt no support from Duterte during their CA ordeal.

“There was never a united front deal. As a matter of fact, Duterte doesn’t want a coalition government but only an inclusive government under his leadership. It is by way of undertaking goodwill measure that the NDFP recommended meritorious individuals,” Sison said.

Sison admitted there was a recommendation to the NDFP to entertain Duterte as a possible ally. But he explained the recommendation is conditional to the peace negotiations.

Duterte cancelled the fifth round of formal negotiations in The Netherlands last May after failing to secure an open-ended bilateral ceasefire agreement with the CPP and the New People’s Army.

The report said Sison “assailed some reactionary political forces who claim that the revolutionary movement has been in alliance with Duterte and trying to blame the movement for the human rights violations committed by Duterte.”

Sison said the revolutionary movement is ready to work with a broad united front of various political forces, including reactionaries who are against the Duterte regime it now considers the enemy.

Sison also warned the military and police who would turn against Duterte are the President’s biggest threat that can result in his quick ouster. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Groups deny conspiracy vs Duterte

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) denied having a formal alliance with the Liberal Party (LP) to overthrow the Rodrigo Duterte regime.

In a statement, the CPP denied Duterte’s allegation there is a conspiracy between the Left and the “yellow” (LP) to oust the President, even as it praised initiatives against “Duterte’s tyranny.”

“The CPP and other Left political forces may have no formal alliance with the Liberal Party and its affiliates but can recognize their initiatives and action as serving the same purpose of resisting Duterte’s tyranny,” the CPP said.

In a speech Wednesday, Duterte alleged that the Left, including Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), had joined forces because “gusto nila ako paalisin dito sa Malacañan,” a move the CPP fears stages attacks on the political opposition.

“It appears that such claims aim to set the stage to clampdown on the political opposition and all other forces standing up against moves to establishing Duterte’s authoritarian rule,” the CPP said.

What Duterte claims to be a “conspiracy” is the broad community of various political and social groups have been roused against rampant extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations by the Duterte regime, the revolutionary party added.

Creating his own ghosts

Bayan for its part flatly denied the existence of a Left-Yellow conspiracy against Duterte.

“The President is the one creating his own ghosts. There is no Left-Yellow conspiracy,” Bayan said in a statement, adding it has always been transparent with its activities including the September 21 rally it helped organize.

“The broad movement involves different groups and personalities with different political affiliations. Church groups, students and artists are also part of the growing movement,” the group said.

“Instead of complaining about an imagined Left-Yellow conspiracy, Duterte should explain why the DOJ (Department of Justice) is backing what appears to be a pro-Duterte vigilante group in the form of the Citizens National Guard. Also, more alarming than the imagined Left-Yellow conspiracy is the proliferation of disinformation using government resources,” it added.

Senator and LP President Francis Pangilinan for his part described Duterte’s allegation as a “fake ouster plot.”

“They’re (administration) just looking for something to divert attention of media and the public from the controversies of corruption, drug smuggling of the Davao group, and the ineffective war on drugs that only resulted in killings every day,” Pangilinan said.

Strong arm tactics

The CPP said Duterte is intolerant of all opposition and dissent, intent on monopolizing political power.

“Duterte wants to clampdown and silence all who disagree with his policies and methods. He has threatened to impose martial law. His officials and loyalists have openly declared plans to use all means to have all those who dissent to be imprisoned,’ the Party said.

The CPP said the so-called Citizen National Guard, a group endorsed by Duterte’s justice secretary, is more brazen in encouraging attacks against declared dissenters whom they declared as “enemies of the state.”

“Duterte’s resort to such strong-armed tactics show desperation and underscores his political isolation. His triple war of death and destruction, his fascist and bureaucrat capitalist rule, corruption and US subservience have roused widespread people’s resistance,” the CPP said.

Calls for Duterte’s ouster continue to mount, the group added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Writers and artists nominate Joma Sison as National Artist

Hundreds of groups, artists and personalities nominated Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison as National Artist for Literature Saturday.

Nominators led by the Concerned Artists of the Philippines and National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera beat yesterday’s deadline by a few hours as they submitted hundreds of pages of testimonials and lists of Sison’s works at about 8:30 in the evening at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Citing his profound impact on many Filipinos and on Philippine society through his poems, essays and other articles, the nominators and endorsers urged the Conferral Order of National Artists to formally include Sison in its list as one of the country’s greatest writers.

“The nomination of Jose Maria Sison for national artist for poetry and the essay is moved by recognition of the crucial role he has a played and continues to play in the making of the Filipino community and nation by developing and enhancing the Filipino capacity to understand the Philippine crisis through the poems and the hundreds of essays he has written on the manifold aspects of that crisis,” a part of the nomination entitled “Jose Maria Sison’s Enduring Legacy: People’s Art, People’s Culture” read.

A copy of Sison’s nomination as National Artist for Literature entitled “Jose Maria Sison’s Enduring Legacy: People’s Art, People’s Culture.

Lumbera, University of the Philippines deans Luis Teodoro and Roland Tolentino, writers Alice and Gelacio Guillermo, playwright Bonifacio Ilagan, National Democratic Front of the Philippines peace consultant Allan Jazmines, Davao-based writer Don Pagusara, UP professor Rommel Rodriguez, and director-producer Soc Jose led hundreds of individual artists, writers, academicians and personalities who nominated Sison.

The Concerned Artists of the Philippines, College Editors’ Guild of the Philippines, Sining na Naglilingkod sa Bayan, Linangan ng Kulturang Pilipino, Teatro Obrero, Artista kag Manunulat nga Makibanwahanon (Panay), Artistang May Diwang Dagohoy (Bohol), Sining Banwa Performance Collective (Albay) Panday Sining (Metro Manila), Liga ng Kabataang Propagandista, Southern Tagalog Exposure, Kodao Productions and The Philippine Collegian were among the organizational nominators.

Sison has authored dozens of books of essays and poetry published locally and internationally and translated into various languages. He has won several awards as a writer, including the Literary Achievement Award for poetry and essay writing from the Writers’ Union of the Philippines, National Book Award for Poetry (Prison and Beyond), Manila Critics Circle, the Southeast Asia (SEA) WRITE Award for the Philippines for essay writing and poetry (reputedly the most prestigious literary award in Southeast Asia) and the Marcelo H. del Pilar Award bestowed by the College Editors Guild of the Philippines.

The nominators singled out Sison’s Struggle for Nationalism and Democracy, Philippine Society and Revolution, and Prisons and Beyond as his most influential books, saying these undoubtedly changed Philippine history and helped define Philippine society.

“[Sison’s essays] have enlightened several generations and inspired them into living lives dedicated to the service of the people in furtherance of the empowerment of the poor, the marginalized and the powerless so they may themselves transform their own lives in a society of peace, prosperity and democracy of their own making,” the nominators wrote.

“He has thereby raised the level of public discourse on such issues as poverty and underdevelopment from the confusion and misdirection of the past to its current focus on their historical and structural roots, and as neither mandated by heaven nor an affliction inherent in the human condition, but as man-made and therefore susceptible to human intervention,” they added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

CPP open to talks resumption when Duterte drops ceasefire demand

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said it remains open to the resumption of formal peace negotiations when President Rodrigo Duterte drops his demand for a bilateral ceasefire with the underground group.

In a statement, the CPP said it is open to peace negotiations with any regime, including Duterte’s, as long at is expresses willingness to seriously discuss the roots of the armed conflict as stipulated in The Hague Joint Declaration between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

“The NDFP-GRP peace negotiations can resume if Duterte will drop his earlier precondition of a bilateral ceasefire which became the single biggest factor which terminated the talks,” the CPP Information Bureau in a statement Tuesday said.

“The ball is still in Duterte’s hands,” the group added.

Duterte was quoted by news reports over the weekend saying he is open to resuming peace talks with the NDFP.

“If you (NDFP) want to resume the talks, I am not averse to the idea. But let me sort out first the other branches of government,” Duterte said after the CPP-led New People’s Army freed  its prisoner of war Senior Police Officer 2 George Rupinta in Compostela Province Friday.

The CPP said Duterte is resurrecting talks of peace negotiations as a damage control measure in the face increasing protests against human rights violations across the country and martial law in Mindanao.

The CPP is blaming Duterte for terminating the NDFP-GRP negotiations “because of his stubborn insistence to toe the US line of using peace talks as an instrument for the pacification and capitulation of the revolutionary forces.”

The group added that while they remain open to resuming peace negotiations with the GRP, they are not hopeful for substantive agreements as long as Duterte remains subservient to foreign interests.

“How can negotiations on socio-economic questions go anywhere when Duterte zealously implements neoliberal policies and pushes for such anti-people polices as the Compressed Work Week or 12-hour workday, removal of restrictions on foreign ownership of public utilities, debt-driven infratructure projects, and others?” the CPP asked.

The CPP also questioned the outcome of negotiations on political and constitutional reforms considering Duterte’s counter-insurgency program, including its aerial bombardment campaign in Marawi and other parts of the country.

“Duterte’s triple war (drug war, counter-insurgency and the Marawi crisis) violates the human rights agreement with impunity. He could not even fulfill his vow to release political prisoners now numbering more than 400,” the CPP said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

CPP dismisses Duterte’s demand for NPA surrender

BANGKOK, Thailand–The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) dismissed President Rodrigo Duterte’s demand for the New People’s Army (NPA) to declare another ceasefire and for guerrillas to surrender and work for his government as paramilitaries.

In a statement Saturday, the CPP Information Bureau said Duterte’ demand for an NPA ceasefire as a precondition for the resumption of formal peace negotiations is unacceptable, adding the Armed Forces of the Philippines is conducting all-out war against their forces and civilians throughout the country.

“This is unacceptable. Does Duterte really take the revolutionary forces as fools?” the CPP asked.

In his speech on the 17th anniversary of Digos’ cityhood Friday, Duterte said there will be no talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) until the Reds declare a ceasefire.

“If you want to resume the peace talks, you declare ceasefire or nothing. And if you say you want another war, be my guest,” Duterte said.

Duterte cancelled the fifth round of formal peace negotiations between his government and the NDFP last May after the NDFP spurned his demand for another ceasefire “as a goodwill measure and create a favourable climate” for the negotiations.

The NDFP, however, said a ceasefire is unacceptable while Duterte is implementing a “triple war” through his so-called war on drugs called Operation Plan (Oplan) Double Barrel/Tokhang, counter-insurgency program called Oplan Kapayapaan, and martial law declaration in Mindanao.

“Duterte has lost all moral grounds to make such a demand. Recall that the NPA declared a ceasefire on August 19, 2016 which lasted for close to 160 days as a response to Duterte’s signed commitment to release around 500 political prisoners through an amnesty proclamation,” the CPP said.

“Duterte, however, wasted the goodwill of the NDFP when it failed to fulfil its commitment and took advantage of the NPA ceasefire to deploy his soldiers and conduct military offensives,” the group added.

No NPA capitulation

The CPP said NDFP-GRP negotiations will no longer be fruitful while Duterte demands NPA capitulation and surrender.

“Surrender. I will make you soldiers of this republic. Just CAFGU (Citizens Armed Force Geographical Unit) for the moment,” Duterte in his speech said.

Duterte added there would be no preconditions for the surrender and promised to give them firearms and houses once they turn themselves in to a mayor or the military.

NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison scoffed at Duterte’s latest statement and said his former student has gone truly insane.

“He wants to convert surrendered NPAs into his soldiers? Duterte has truly gone insane,” Sison said in an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Sison said that, early on, Duterte has been proven to be a liar and untrustworthy.

“The line has been drawn to separate, fight and overthrow the US-Duterte regime. Duterte would have a hard time to act convincing again,” Sison said.

More NPA offensives

The CPP said it is the people who clamor for the NPA to mount more and more tactical offensives.

“Victories of the people’s army inspire resistance amid widespread killings and the climate of fear imposed by the Duterte regime,” the CPP in its statement said.

“The NPA launches tactical offensive to bring to account the Duterte regime and its soldiers and police for thousands upon thousands of Oplan Tokhang killings, the successive killings of peasants, national minorities and youths, military occupation of civilian communities, aerial bombings and shelling, the near-genocidal war against the Maranaos of Marawi, arbitrary arrests and detention, and so on,” it added.

The CPP also dismissed Duterte’s threat to 50 more years of civil war.

“By the looks of it, Duterte may not even last his term. He has roused the anger of the Filipino people and caused his increasing isolation. The revolutionary movement will surely outlast the US-Duterte regime,” the CPP said.

“The Filipino people and their revolutionary forces have waged close to 50 years of people’s war. They do not tire. They are determined as ever to wage revolution because they seek to end the unbearable sufferings of workers and peasants under the oppressive and exploitative system,” it added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)