STREETWISE:Peace Talks 101
By Carol P. Araullo The significance of peace talks resumption between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), the revolutionary umbrella organization that includes the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA), is not as easy to appreciate and be enthused about as one would think. The subject matter is […]
Interview: There are no problems if I don’t go to the Philippines–Sison
NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC FRONT OF THE PHILIPPINES (NDFP) Chief Political Consultant Jose Maria Sison told Kodao Productions there are difficulties in carrying out his plans for a homecoming in July. In a Skype meeting with then candidate for the presidency Rodrigo Duterte several weeks ago, the now President-elect expressed his desire to meet his former professor for […]
Duterte, NDFP peace teams agree to resume formal talks
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s peace team agreed to resume formal negotiations next month with a historic joint statement last night in Oslo, Norway (1 am, Manila time). In a successful conclusion to their two-day exploratory talks, both parties also agreed to discuss in their formal negotiations the […]
Oslo talks conclude successfully
NDFP and Duterte peace teams begin informal meet
QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES—The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s negotiating teams expressed optimism at the start of their three-day preliminary talks in Oslo, Norway yesterday, an observer to the meeting said. Incoming Anakpawis representative Ariel Casilao said both parties are optimistic in resuming the formal talks slated next month after […]
Disgusting, Sison says of US terror relisting
AT THE ‘Blue Meets Red’ forum at the Ateneo de Davao University last June 8, National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) spokesperson Fidel Agcaoili said their chief political consultant Prof. Jose Maria Sison’s planned homecoming to the Philippines is still a ‘ticklish’ issue owing to the United States recent relisting of the Communist Party […]
NDFP and incoming Duterte administration poised for a ceasefire agreement
The negotiating panels of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the incoming Government of the Philippines (GPH) confirmed that an interim mutual ceasefire agreement is on the agenda when both parties hold preliminary talks in Oslo starting June 14. NDFP negotiating panel chairperson Luis Jalandoni said that their group is now finalizing […]
STATEMENT: Journalists are not the enemy
President-elect Rodrigo Duterte errs in declaring that most journalists are being killed for being corrupt and in implying that only corrupt journalists have been killed in the Philippines. While corruption is a continuing problem in the press and media, it is simply not true that most of the journalists killed in the line of duty […]
STATEMENT: On Duterte’s media boycott dare
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines wishes to clarify that it was not the Philippine media which called for a boycott of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s press conferences. For the record, it was the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontiers; RSF) that issued the call, one that was, rightly, not heeded by the […]
OPEN LETTER: It’s about the culture of impunity in our country!
3 June 2016 Dear President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, That was quite a mouthful you unleashed on media Thursday night. We do appreciate your reminder that, yes, we journalists are not a uniformly lily-white breed, in fact none of us are, although we would not go so far as to consider ourselves in the same line of […]