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Robredo commits to peace talks resumption

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Vice President Leni Robredo is committed to resume formal peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) if she wins in the May polls, according to her spokesperson Atty. Barry Gutierrez.

Representing Robredo in the third episode of the Peace and Presidentiables webinar series organized by the Citizen’s Alliance for Just Peace (CAJP), Gutierrez assured that a Robredo administration would call for the resumption of the NDFP with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).

A Robredo presidency would avoid militaristic and top-down strategies in favor of enabling marginalized sectors to have a role in governance and decision-making processes, including peace negotiations, Gutierrez added.

Robredo would re-engage communities and basic sectors to create a more conducive environment for peaceful negotiations, he said.

Gutierrez outlined five principles in the pursuit of this goal: the rejection of a purely militaristic approach; strong participation of communities and local stakeholders in the peace process; the primacy of protecting civilians from violence; a peace framework that is in line with national socioeconomic goals and social justice; and, the strategic role of international community, including longstanding partners such as the Royal Norwegian Government.

Reaffirmation of previous agreements

Robredo’s spokesperson also promised that she would uphold the milestone documents previously signed by the GRP and the NDFP.

These agreements include The Hague Joint Declaration, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).

On the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER), which was jointly drafted and was ready for approval in 2017, Gutierrez said that economic and social reforms should be fundamental to the peace process. 

Robredo on the NTF-ELCAC

Gutierrez also clarified Robredo’s stance on the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), saying the Vice President believes that the original intention behind the agency was sound but the implementation of its mandate was marred by abuses.

 If the NTF-ELCAC were to be abolished, it would have to be replaced by a body that would pursue the “whole-of-nation approach” while upholding democratic principles, he said.

Gutierrez also explained that Robredo’s support for the “whole-of-nation approach” was not an endorsement of the NTF-ELCAC’s abuses, but an espousal of the idea that the insurgency has to be solved by including all aspects of national governance to address the root causes of the insurgency.

Robredo vowed to put an end to acts of harassment by the NTF-ELCAC, such as in the form of red-tagging, Gutierrez assured, the Vice President being a victim of red-tagging by officials of the NTF-ELCAC herself.

Robredo is also open to revisiting controversial provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.

According to Gutierrez, Robredo will also be amenable to a reassessment of the terrorist designation of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) as so-called terrorist organizations.

Robredo shall also initiate a review of the cases of political prisoners, including jailed NDFP peace consultants, to facilitate their release.

More presidentiables for talks

Earlier, Robredo’s rival for the presidency, Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, also said he is amenable to a review of the CPP, NPA and NDFP’s designation as so-called terrorist organizations as part of the creation of an atmosphere for the resumption of formal peace negotiations.

“Basta ako, yung peace talks, we must seek for it as much as possible. Not only the Communist Party but those other,” Moreno, during a campaign sortie in Lucena last Monday, said.

(For me, we must seek peace talks as much as possible. Not only with the CPP, but with other armed groups.)

Moreno served as NDFP Negotiating Panel resource person during talks between the Rodrigo Duterte GRP and the NDFP in 2016 and 2017.

Senator Manny Pacquaio and labor leader Leody de Guzman also said they will resume formal peace negotiations with the NDFP in the first two episodes of CAJP’s forum.

The Peace and the Presidentiable forum is organized in cooperation with the Lasallian Justice and Peace Commission of the De La Salle schools; Father Saturnino Urios University; Silliman University Student Council; St. Scholastica’s College, Manila; and, the University of the Philippines.

More NDFP consultant disappeared

Meanwhile, human rights group Karapatan sounded an alarm over the disappearance of NDFP peace consultants Ezequiel Daguman and Edwin Alcid.

Karapatan image

Karapatan said 50-year-old Daguman and a companion have been missing since the afternoon of March 7 while they were on their way to a peasant community in one of the banana plantations in New Corella, Davao del Norte to look into the situation of workers and farmers in the area.

Alcid and two farmers were also reportedly accosted by military personnel last March 8 in Catubig, Northern Samar, the group reported.

Both consultants and their respective companions have not been located yet by their relatives, Karapatan added.

“We call on the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to help the families of Daguman, Alcid and their companions to search military camps, police stations and safe houses to ensure that they are alive and are accorded their rights,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said.

Daguman and Alcid make three the number of consultants to have been reported abducted since the start of the year.

Esteban Manuel was abducted last February 16 in Villareal, Samar and was kept incommunicado until the CHR found out he is being imprisoned at the Philippine Army’s 8th Infantry Division camp in Calbayog City.

Like fellow NDFP peace consultants arrested, Manuel and his companions are accused of illegal possession of firearms and explosives that are the Duterte government’s standard charges against activists and dissenters.

Karapatan image

NDFP consultant Ramon Patriarca, already a former political prisoner, was arrested in Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental last March 18, along with youth activists CJ Matarlo and John Michael Tecson were.

Karapatan has no details of the charges against Patriarca and companions.

“We assert the calls to surface Edwin Alcid and Ezequiel Daguman and to free Esteban Manuel Jr. and Ramon Patriarca now! These attacks on peace consultants and advocates must stop! We strongly urge the Philippine government and the NDFP to resume the peace talks as soon as possible for the sake of our people,” Palabay demanded.

Palabay reminded the government that peace consultants are covered by the (JASIG) that states peace consultants and peace panel members should be immune from arrests, detention, and harassment.

Despite the suspension of formal peace talks between the Philippine government and the NDFP, JASIG has not been formally terminated by both parties, she said.

Palabay said that the recent string of abductions and arrests of NDFP peace consultants “signal intensified attacks — and of worst things to come, especially with the Duterte administration’s self-imposed deadline to wipe out the NDFP. We can only expect the arrests, abductions, and even killings of peace consultants and advocates.”

“Our people deserve genuine peace. These attacks not only spoil efforts to advance just peace but instead perpetuates militarism, violence, and injustice. As we assert our calls to surface Edwin Alcid and Ezequiel Daguman and to free Esteban Manuel Jr. and Ramon Patriarca, we also call for the immediate resumption of the peace talks and to stop the attacks on peace consultants,” Palabay said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Bicol NPA: ‘Gov’t attacks us because they fear our strength’

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The Romulo Jallores Command of the New People’s Army (NPA) in the Bicol Region said the government’s increased military presence in civilian communities is proof of their strength, contrary to government’s claims that the Communist guerrilla army is weakening.

In an audio statement 12 days before their 53rd founding anniversary, NPA-Bicol spokesperson Raymund Buenferza said the ruling class is in fact showing fear by flooding communities with government troops as the Communists continue their revolutionary work among the masses.

“They are being eaten by their desperation to crush the gains of the revolutionary movement, both by the earlier and our current generation of NPAs,” Buenfuerza said.

The regional NPA spokesperson said the government has launched costly, prolonged and widespread military operations to force the guerrillas into sustained combat to try to decimate their ranks in the region.

Buenfuerza however urged their Bicolano comrades to keep on resisting and remain faithful to their cause for meaningful change.

“Whatever it is that the government is making us suffer—if your areas are militarized, your work is being disrupted, the mass bases are being attacked—remember that these are because we are faithful to our struggle for the interests of the masses,” he said.

‘The military had last say on talks’

Buenfuerza’s remarks came as President Rodrigo Duterte again mocked the NPA in an address before alleged guerrilla surrenderees in Leyte Province on Thursday, March 17.

In his speech, Duterte said the NPA’s 53 year war is going nowhere.

“[T]ell those crazy people, those who are still fighting the government…Tell them that Mayor (Duterte) is urging you to surrender because I might return before I step down. If there are others who will surrender — if possible all your remaining comrades, come down here now because I can still help you,” he said.

Duterte also said he is instructing the military and police to allow the NPA members who wish to surrender to do so peacefully.

He also again promised to award surrenderees houses and livelihood, even cars.

Duterte said he allowed the resumption of peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines early in his term, but was eventually prevailed upon by the military to withdraw.

“The military did not like it; I asked them to give me a chance to (talk peace). They said, ‘Sir, this is likely to result in a coalition government (with the Communists),’” Duterte said.

No giving up

Buenfuerza said the masses’ abject economic conditions encourage them to join their revolution however.

A vast rank of the people is being forced to choose between the two opposing sides of revolution and reaction, the NPA spokesperson said.

“The intensification of the government’s attacks gives way to the deepening politicization of our entire people,” he said.

“The enemy is welcome to delude themselves they are at the eve of their victory while we strengthen ourselves as we grab at the opportunity to move forward,” he added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Labog to Lacson: ‘You better withdraw, gossipmonger’

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Senatorial candidate and labor leader Elmer “Ka Bong” Labog urged Senator Panfilo Lacson to withdraw from the presidential race if he persists on red-tagging rivals and other political groups.

In a tweet, Labog said the national elections seek to choose an inclusive president, including activists like him.

“Senator @iampinglacson, mag-withdraw ka na lang. Hindi ito eleksyon para sa Pambansang Marites,” Labog wrote. (You better withdraw. This is not an election to look for a National Gossipmonger.)

Labog added they can not endorse Lacson’s candidacy.

“Ayaw mo sa amin, mas ayaw namin sa iyo,” the Kilusang Mayo Uno chairperson said. (You don’t like us, we don’t like you more.)

(From Labog’s FB page)

Labog was reacting to Lacson’s allegations that communists have infiltrated Vice President Leni Robredo’s campaign for the presidency, urging his rival “to take appropriate actions” against it.

Activists, many of whom are supporting Robredo’s candidacy, have called Lacson’s statement as red-tagging.

The Makabayan bloc that is fielding Labog and Bayan Muna president Neri Colmenares in the race for the Senate are endorsing Robredo.

‘Lies’

Meanwhile, Robredo  denied allegations that she is forming a so-called coalition government with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

“To be clear: This is a lie,” Robredo said.

The Vice President said her candidacy is open to everyone who is ready to work to improve the lives of Filipinos.

(From VP Robredo’s FB page.)

Robredo said the disinformation and (black) propaganda are targeting members of the uniformed services who are supporting her.

“You want to derail the People’s Campaign’s momentum? Try harder. Better yet, why not join us instead?” Robredo said.

‘No chance of winning’

The CPP for its part slammed Lacson, saying he is merely serving the “tyrant” Rodrigo Duterte’s scenario-building to justify the possibility of imposing martial law as a last resort option to secure power.

“The presidential candidate Lacson, who surely is aware that he has no chances of winning, is using his campaign as platform to serve as Duterte’s attack dog against the Robredo camp,” the CPP said in a statement.

The group said Lacson, a former police general and alleged martial law torturer under the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship, is a veteran of red-tagging against activists and oppositionists.

The former fugitive was also reported to be behind the Rizal Day bombing of 2000 to derail the mounting protests against the then Joseph Estrada regime, the CPP added.

“For the record, neither the CPP nor the NDFP has forged any agreement with any of the political parties running in the May 2022 elections. Neither are the CPP or NDFP concerned with discussing a ‘coalition government’ at this time,” the CPP said.

“The NDFP, together with various peace advocates, have only publicly expressed hopes that the people will support a candidate that will resume peace negotiations with the NDFP in order to discuss the socioeconomic and political roots of the current civil war,” it added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Family asks, ‘Where is NDFP consultant Esteban Manuel?’

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The family of arrested activist Esteban Manuel Jr. has asked the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to help look for the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant reportedly arrested last February 16.

The elderly peace worker is now believed missing as his family could not locate his real location 16 days after his reported arrest in Samar 17 days ago.

“[H]is family is seeking the help of the [CHR] and human rights organizations to locate him with the ‘utmost urgency’ while appealing to his captors to ‘keep him safe and alive,’” political prisoner support organization Kapatid said in an alert.

Manuel’s son Albert wrote to the CHR seeking help to find his father and to know if he is receiving proper care.

“My father is 73 years old and of fragile health. He has hypertension and needs medicines. But we have not received replies to our queries to locate him,” Albert wrote.

“We appeal to his captors to keep him safe and alive,” Albert added.

Kapatid said there have been conflicting press releases from the military and police on the reported arrest of the elder Manuel in Villareal town, Samar.

Kapatid said the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police has called Manuel under different names when they reported the arrest.

The military and the police also could not agree on the number of firearms allegedly seized from Manuel.

Kapatid said the government’s information immediately raised concerns about the possibility of the firearms being “planted” it said is a well-established method by the police and military to keep activists in indefinite detention.

Albert said they heard conflicting information that his father was either detained in a military camp in Calbiga or at the police station in Villareal town.

Kapatid also said they are also reaching out to the International Committee of the Red Cross to help ensure humanitarian protection and assistance for the elder Manuel in line with its mission to protect the lives and dignity of victims of armed conflict and promote respect for international law.

READ: Elderly NDFP peace consultant arrested in Samar

Bright student

Kapatid said Esteban was a native of Laoag, Ilocos Norte whose father, Esteban Manuel Sr., was a veteran of the infamous Bataan Death March in World War II.

A birght student, Esteban graduated valedictorian from the Camp General Emilio Aguinaldo High School in Quezon City.

He went on to study engineering at the University of the Philippines where he joined the Kabataang Makabayan (KM).

Esteban went underground when the dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972 and KM became an underground organization.

Esteban’s father was arrested when the military came looking for him and his brother Napoleon it believed also became activist.

Manuel Sr. was detained for over 50 days without any charges. He was posthumously awarded a human rights compensation claim. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

‘President Leody’ to abolish NTF-ELCAC, repeal anti-terror law

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Labor leader vows to resume peace talks, fight social injustice if elected

Leody de Guzman will immediately abolish the government’s anti-insurgency task force and repeal the controversial anti-terror law if elected president.

In an online peace and justice forum, the presidential candidate said he will immediately disband the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and ask Congress to repeal Republic Act 11479 he described as twin menaces to the Filipino people.

“Our position is clear. The NTF-ELCAC must be disbanded because it is a concrete expression and legalization of President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal brand of leadership. It breeds all sorts of human rights violations and terror on our people,” de Guzman said.

NTF-ELCAC’s budget should instead be transferred to agencies that confronts the COVID-19 pandemic and to the education sector, he added.

The task force, the Partido Lakas ng Masa standard bearer said, clearly violates the people’s fundamental rights, along with the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.

“That law should not be called anti-terror. It should be called Terror Law,” de Guzman said in Filipino.

De Guzman was the featured presidential candidate of the Peace and the Presidentiables series of online conversations last Monday, February 28.

The forum was organized by the Citizens’ Alliance for Just Peace (CAJP) in cooperation with Lasallian Justice and Peace Commission of the De La Salle University system; Father Saturnino Urios University; Silliman University Student Council; St. Scholastica’s College-Manila and the University of the Philippines.

No local peace talks

De Guzman said he is not in favor of the government’s so-called localized peace talks proposal the National Democratic Front of the Philippines has repeatedly rejected.

“That is their way of trying to fool the other party. It is a divide and rule tactic so they can try to bribe, to show they are talking to some people and to later convince them to surrender without the root causes of the armed conflict being addressed,” de Guzman said.

The veteran labor rights activist said genuine and sincere peace negotiations must be held at the national level.

“The root causes of the armed conflict are not local, they are our national problem. If the government is serious in addressing them, division is not the way to go,” de Guzman said.

The former leather glove factory worker also said he is open to studying The Hague Joint Declaration as the framework of the peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

He also said he is open to strengthening the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees that should provide protection to negotiators, consultants, resource persons and staff involved in the peace process.

Photo by Breakaway Media

‘CPP, NPA and NDFP are not terrorists’

De Guzman said he does not consider the CPP, the NPA and the NDFP as terrorists, adding it is better instead to address their demands through negotiations.

“We should begin with an honest-to-goodness recognition they are not terrorists. We should acknowledge that their issues are legitimate,” he said.

The labor leader added that peace negotiations with the NDFP will be easier because he and running mate Walden Bello are clear on their belief the revolutionaries have legitimate reasons to fight.

“It is not like they saw Fernando Poe Jr. or Lito Lapid movies and developed a desire to take up arms. They are not that narrow-minded,” he said.

He cited his own experience as a full-time labor rights activist for 36 years who has been the victim of threats and harassments from the police and military.

“It is not easy to attend rallies and hold strikes in workplaces. It is hot. It is not easy to negotiate, especially when the police are there. You may pee your pants from terror,” he said.

The revolutionaries are forced by their situation and conviction that injustices must be fought with arms, he said.

Fighter for social and economic reforms

De Guzman said he is the first presidential candidate to have come from a real marginalized sector, unlike his rivals who are billionaires, are popular and representatives of the elite.

If elected, the candidate said his administration will focus on basic social services and ensure food, education, water, electricity, health, among others.

“We will develop the countryside, improve farmers’ livelihoods. We will protect the fisher folk and animal-raisers. We will revive the manufacturing sector and not rely solely on importation. We will not solve poverty with neoliberal economic policies,” he said.

De Guzman said he will immediately do away with unfair trade agreements such as the World Trade Organization, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and others that keep the country import-dependent and export-oriented.

De Guzman said his candidacy is about overturning the social system that makes rich people richer and the poor poorer.

“The government enacted and implemented laws that put social services in the hands of capitalists with the promise that once they have made more money, the benefits will trickle down to the masses. It did not happen,” he said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Joma urges next GRP administration to remove barriers to peace talks resumption

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NDFP chief political consultant reacts to presidentiables’ stand on negotiations

National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison said the future Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) administration must get rid of the barriers put up by Rodrigo Duterte to give peace negotiations resumption a chance.

Sison said GRP-NDFP peace negotiations could be resumed upon the nullification of the Anti-Terror Act, the dissolution of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and the explicit withdrawal of the designation of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), New People’s Army (NPA) and the NDFP as “terrorist” organizations.

In an interview with the NDFP International Information Office, Sison said Duterte has put up the three barriers to render impossible the resumption of negotiations with the Revolutionary Left, and even thereafter.

“Duterte was never really interested in serious peace negotiations with the NDFP but obsessed with accumulating power and bureaucratic loot and easily decided to terminate the peace negotiations and scrap all agreements made with previous regimes of the GRP,” Sison explained.

Sison said Duterte only pretended to be in a hurry to complete the peace negotiations from 2016 to 2017, which the NDFP accommodated by accelerating the negotiations and drafting of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms.

“[T]here were even meetings to draft in advance the Comprehensive Agreement on Political and Constitutional Reforms and the Comprehensive Agreement for the End Hostilities and Disposition of Forces,” he said.

But since Duterte’s cancelation of the negotiations in mid-2017, he has chosen the so-called localized peace negotiations as a mode of intelligence gathering, psywar and combat operations, seeking to split the revolutionary movement and entrapping individuals, families, groups and communities suspected of being connected to the revolutionary movement, Sison said.

Response to presidentiables’ stand on peace talks

Sison said he wishes that the major presidential candidates other than former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. were clearer about wanting to resume the peace negotiations if they were elected president.

“[N]o one among the rivals of Bongbong has dared to reaffirm The Hague Joint Declaration and all the further agreements done within its framework,” he said.

Sison said that Leni Robredo has muddled her own wish to resume the peace negotiations if she became president by accepting the NTF-ELCAC and its “whole nation” approach.

“There is no clarity and certainty that she is not for the fake localized peace talks and that she is really for the resumption of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations within the framework of The Hague Joint Declaration,” he said.

Sison said that Manny Pacquiao sounds sincere about wishing to resume the peace negotiations and goes so far as to declare that had he not become a successful boxer he would have joined the NPA.

“In general terms, Isko Moreno has also declared the wish to resume the peace negotiations,” Sison said of the Manila mayor who once served as NDFP’s resource person during formal negotiations in Oslo, Norway and Rome, Italy in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

Sison observed that Leody de Guzman has also declared the same general wish in order to address the roots of the armed conflict.

Aside from Marcos, Sison was most critical of Senator Panfilo Lacson who he said is most clear about being for “fake local peace negotiations.”

Local peace talks, Sison said, will only target individuals, families group and communities suspected of being associated with the NPA.

The scheme shall be similar to NDFP’s experience from 1986 to 1987 with the Corazon Aquino administration when military entrapment, control and close surveillance and individual and groups shall be subject to becoming surrenderers and battle casualties, Sison explained.

“His (Lacson) idea of localized peace negotiations is similar to that of Duterte,” Sison said.

The former Philippine National Police chief was also the primary author of the Anti-Terror Law that Sison said is objectionable to the Left.

Since 2018, Lacson had been consistent in calling for Sison’s exclusion from the GRP’s negotiations with the Left.

To continue performing role

But Sison said it is not for the GRP or anyone on its side who decides on who works for a just peace on the NDFP side.

 “It is quite absurd that the GRP and its military officials often prate that I am already disconnected from the Philippines, especially from the revolutionary forces, and yet they also abuse my name by putting it in their ‘terrorist list’ or in every charge sheet against the NPA,” he said.

Sison said he will remain as NDFP’s chief political consultant if formal negotiations resume with the next GRP administration.

“[S]o long as the NDFP asks me to perform a role that I can do competently,” he said. (Raymund B. Villanueva)

‘Poverty, lack of development, corruption nearly drove me to take up arms’—Pacquiao

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Senator Manny Pacquiao revealed he may have been an armed rebel if he did not become a legendary boxing champion.

Citing his humble roots in the mountains of Mindanao, the presidential candidate said he himself experienced the abject poverty that drives many to take up arms against the Manila government.

“If I did not become a boxer, there was a big chance that I would be in the mountains bearing arms,” Pacquiao said in the Peace and the Presidentiables online forum by peace advocates and universities.

The world’s lone eight weight division champion said poverty and mal-development, driven by corruption in government, are the root causes of armed conflict in the country, problems he vowed to eliminate if he becomes president.

The senator said he will revive the peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and will make sure that agreements between both parties are respected and implemented.

“We should listen to them (rebels). There is solution to every problem. They ask nothing but development and food for everybody,” he said in Filipino.

Pacquiao said he is also open to honoring past agreements, such as free land distribution to poor farmers agreed and initialled by both parties in June 2017 before President Rodrigo Duterte cancelled formal talks.

The senator said that land grabbed from farmers and indigenous peoples by powerful and rich, particularly by those in government, must be returned.

“If I become president, I will not allow that to happen. Puputulin ko ang sungay ng mga ganid at mapagsamantala sa gubyerno,” he said. (I will cut the horns off the heads of the greedy and corrupt in government.)

Pacquiao also said he is not in favor of red-tagging activities by the government’s anti-insurgency arm, the National Task Force Against Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), especially against the innocent.

“NTF-ELCAC’s funds must instead be utilized for the genuine development of communities,” he added.

The presidential candidate also did not agree with the government’s designation of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army as terrorists as well as NTF-ELCAC’s statement that negotiating peace with the underground groups is naive.

“They are those who take up arms because of poverty and have seen they have very little chance of getting justice under this rotten system,” Pacquiao said.

The senator however declined to endorse the immediate release of NDFP peace consultants and other political prisoners as part of a confidence-building measure for the resumption of formal negotiations with the NDFP.

While acknowledging that many political prisoners may have been wrongfully jailed, he said he will instead endorse swift judicial procedures to allow the innocent to return to their families.

Responding to Pacquiao’s answers to questions on peace, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan chairperson Dr. Carol Araullo said the senator’s humble origins makes him credible in identifying poverty, lack of jobs and development, the poor’s political disempowerment, and unequal application of justice as the root causes of armed conflict.

“The senator failed to fully explain his stand on the NTF-ELCAC but he is right in saying its funds must be used for real community development. It is notable that he also mentioned that ordinary police officers and soldiers are just being used by abusive government officials,” Araullo noted.

Pacquiao is the first among the May 2022 presidential candidates who attended the series organized by the Citizen’s alliance for Just Peace in cooperation with the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform, the Pilgrims for Peace, Sulong Peace and Waging Peace.

Tuesday’s online forum was supported by the La Sallian Justice and Peace Commission of Da La Salle University, Fr. Saturnino Urios University, the Silliman University Student Council,St. Scholastica’s College-Manila and the University of the Philippines. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

CPP still awaiting verification of Codaste’s death

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The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said it has yet to receive verified reports on the death of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant Pedro Codaste in a military operation in Bukidnon last Friday.

“We are still awaiting verification of the reported death of…Pedro Codaste (Ka Gonyong), supposedly in an armed encounter between the AFP and an NPA unit in Impasug-ong, Bukidnon last January 21,” the CPP’s website said.

“We will issue a statement as soon as we receive additional information,” CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena added.

Codaste, alleged to be a top leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Mindanao, was reportedly killed in what the 16th Infantry Battalion said was a 30-minute gunfight in Barangay  Kalabugao.

A certain Ka Zandro was killed along with Codaste, the military claimed.

A known NPA stronghold, Impasug-ong was where NPA National Operations Command spokesperson Jorge Madlos (Ka Oris) was killed in an alleged military ambush in October 2021.

Peace consultant

Arrested in 2010 and jailed in Bukidnon for alleged murder and attempted murder, Codaste was among the 19 NDFP consultants released at the start of the Rodrigo Duterte government to participate in the resumption of formal peace negotiations in Oslo, Norway in August 2016.

He also attended the second and third formal rounds of negotiations in Oslo and in Rome, Italy in October 2016 and January 2017, respectively, as a member of the NDFP Negotiating Panel’s Reciprocal Working Committee on End of Hostilities and Disposition of Forces.

The NPA leader had apparently gone back underground after the Rome round when then Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza notified the NDFP of the government’s bid to cancel the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees that would supposedly protect peace negotiation participants from arrest  and harm.

President Duterte thereafter ordered the arrest of all NDFP peace negotiators while the military in Northern Mindanao issued a shoot-to-kill order against Codaste and others.

In May 2021, Codaste and 18 others were included in the government’s Anti-Terrorism Council list of so-called terrorists.

The CPP protested the government’s designation and called the 19, including Codaste, as “honorable revolutionaries who have served the cause of the Filipino people for national and social liberation all their lives.”

“Throughout the past decades, they have courageously stood side by side with the people and struggled against dictators and tyrants. They all have sacrificed personal ambition and selfish interests,” the CPP said.

“Unlike Duterte, these revolutionaries have only the clothes on their back to count as their wealth. They do not accumulate money from the government nor fleece the people with taxes,” the group added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

CPP celebrates 53rd anniversary today, rallies members to frustrate enemy’s plan to end revolution

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The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today called on its members to resist the government military’s declared plan to end the 53-year old armed revolution by the end of the Rodrigo Duterte administration in six months.

In its traditional anniversary statement, the underground group rallied its forces to “resist and frustrate the declared plans of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to carry out a ‘last push’ to end the armed revolution.”

Founded by seven young activists on December 26, 1968 in Pangasinan province, the CPP is a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist party that launched an armed revolution three months later on March 29, 1968 through the New People’s Army (NPA).

The NPA wages the oldest continuing Maoist armed struggle in the world.

The CPP said the “diehard fascists” of the Rodrigo Duterte government are doing their utmost to crush the Party and have resorted to the most vicious means of “defending and preserving their reign of corruption and plunder.”

The group’s leadership said the CPP is “ever determined to lead the people’s democratic revolution, shoulder all the difficult tasks and make all the necessary sacrifices in order to surmount all obstacles to frustrate the enemy’s counterrevolutionary war and carry forward the people’s war to ever greater heights” however.

‘State terror’

The group said the Duterte government has carried out “relentless counter-revolutionary war” against CPP members in the regime’s desperate attempt to preserve the “rotten ruling system” that only intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic.

CPP revealed the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) it described as “the Duterte civil-military junta” serves as the government’s nerve center of state terror that has blurred the line between armed combatants and civilians in its counter-insurgency campaign.

“It (NTF-ELCAC) has subjected leaders and activists of mass organizations and communities to massacres and extrajudicial killings, surveillance, abductions, torture, unlawful arrests and detention, threats and intimidation and other gross violations of human rights,” the CPP said.

The CPP also said the AFP has violated international humanitarian law in employing brutal aerial bombardments that terrorize civilians and forcing “tens of thousands” to evacuate their communities out of terror.

“Mountainous areas, farms and areas adjacent to communities have been targets of 500-lb bombs dropped from fighter aircraft, rockets fired from attack helicopters and artillery shelling. Aerial and artillery bombardment and strafing are inherently indiscriminate and endangers the lives of civilians and destroys their property,” it said.

The Duterte government has taken delivery of multi-purpose jetplanes from South Korea and Black Hawk military helicopters from Europe this year that have already conducted military operations in Iloilo, Bukidnon and Samar provinces.

AFP and PNP commanding generals have also promised to crush the New People’s Army (NPA) before the end of Duterte’s term in six-months’ time.

The CPP however said civilians have become victims of “indiscriminate” airborne attacks against suspected New People’s Army (NPA) strongholds.

“Bombs dropped by the AFP have damaged farms and ravaged forests which also serve as sources of food, water, medicine and livelihood of peasants and minority peoples,” the CPP said.

The CPP said the government’s declarations are in vain even as it admitted that “some NPA units suffer(ed) some losses” in the year, including the death of NPA spokesperson Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos last October in an operation in Bukidnon.

Growth and strength

The CPP claimed majority of the NPA’s guerilla units are successfully frustrating their enemy’s attacks, even with the military’s use of new bomber aircraft and intensifying ground warfare.

“[T]he great majority of the guerrilla units of the NPA have rendered the enemy’s superiority (in equipment) ineffective and have successfully grown in strength and expanded their base of support,” the CPP said.

“Despite the Duterte regime’s brutal tactics of counterrevolution, the people’s war continues to
move forward and steadily accumulate strength,” it added.

The CPP revealed that despite division-sized military operations against their forces, its Central Committee, Executive Committee and Military Commission, as well as officers of the NPA’s National Operational Command continue to provide leadership to the underground movement.

It added that the NPA’s 14 regional operational commands and their sub-regional and front operational commands remain intact.

The group said NPA units in Cagayan, Ilocos Sur, Quezon, Camarines Norte, Masbate, other Bicol provinces as well as in the islands of Mindoro, Palawan, Samar and Negros have also frustrated military operations during the year.

PRWC photo

Support from the masses

The CPP said the NPA’s masterful use of guerilla tactics of dispersal, shifting and concentration allows the guerilla army to frustrate government military operations that also allows them to continue their “mass work” even in communities hit by calamities and disasters.

“They [the NPA] continue to enjoy the deep support of the peasant masses and Lumad minorities, especially as the AFP’s lies, corruption and collusion with mining companies and plantations are increasingly exposed,” it said

The CPP explained that the even worsening social conditions are inciting the masses to fight back with all forms of resistance.

“By resorting to brazen state terrorist attacks, the Duterte tyrannical regime is rousing more and more people to join the NPA, wage armed struggle and help carry forward the people’s war,” the group explained.

The CPP said more underground Party branches and committees continue to be built in both cities and rural areas that, along with NPA fighters and National Democratic Front of the Philippines allied organizations, “valiantly and boldly” carry their revolution forward.

No ceasefire

Meanwhile, both the Duterte government and the NDFP did not issue their traditional reciprocal ceasefire declarations over the Christmas and New Year holidays for the second straight year following President Duterte’s announcement last year that he would no longer declare a truce with the NPA.

New PNP chief Gen. Dionardo Carlos said police personnel in regional offices and national operating units are on alert today, alleging the NPA launches attacks on December 26 and March 29 on its own founding anniversary.

“The CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), are known to stage armed offensives to drumbeat commemoration of significant dates in the underground communist organization,” Carlos was quoted by news reports as saying.

The NPA are not known to launch military offensives on those dates during the Duterte presidency however.

CPP spokesperson Marco Valbuena for his part confirmed to Kodao that: “There is no declaration of ceasefire in the face of the AFP’s intensified military offensives, indiscriminate aerial bombardment and artillery shelling, and heightened suppression and terrorism in rural communities.”

There are also no announcements of traditional public gatherings of both NPA fighters and their supporters for today.

Valbuena said the CPP and the NPA are instead concentrating on helping communities within their areas of influence that were battered by Typhoon Odette.

“In the areas severely affected by typhoon Odette, NPA units are focused on extending assistance to help peasant communities rebuild their homes and repair their farms. At the same time, they are on high alert against treacherous attacks of AFP units against the NPA’s units involved in rehabilitation work,” Valbuena said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

KAPATID: Dismissal of ‘traveling skeletons’ case proves Esperon is ‘an empty can’

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A human rights group said the dismissed “traveling skeletons” case is a personal defeat for national security adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. who, as Philippine Army commanding general, had a direct hand in its filing.

Political detainees support group Kapatid said the dismissal by the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) proved that Esperon had been nothing but “an empty can” from the start of the long-drawn 16-year-old case.

“Last Thursday, December 16, this ‘empty can which made the loudest noise through the years went straight to the place it deserves: the trash can,’” Kapatid spokesperson Fides Lim said.

Lim said the case had been Esperon’s so-called crowning glory and was in fact the self-designated principal and last prosecution witness presented to the Court against the 38 accused prominent Leftists and civilian farmers.

“This dismissal proved what we’ve been saying since this case was filed way back 2004-2005. This multiple murder case was already dismissed by the Baybay Regional Trial Court (8th Judicial Region) yet was recycled by the government to implicate known activists and place them behind bars,” Lim said.

The government said it discovered several mass graves in August 2006 containing 67 skeletal remains it alleged were the remains of victims of a New People’s Army purge of its members in 1985.

Human rights group Karapatan however revealed later charges were simply a “remake of the story portrayed by the prosecution in Criminal Case No. 2001-6-51 before the Regional Trial Court (RTC), 8th Judicial Region, Baybay, Leyte which was dismissed by the said court.”

The group added that the skeletons of three of the alleged victims in the 2000 Baybay case as well as other witnesses were “recycled” in the later Hilongos trials.

The case was later transferred to Manila RTC Branch 32.

Accused Jose Maria Sison, National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) chief political consultant and Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairperson, said the mass graves were fake and that Esperon merely collected the skeletal remains from various cemeteries.

Other accused, such as NDFP Negotiating Panel member Benito Tiamzon, also question the articles of clothing that came with the skeletons, saying those who have been to the mountains would know that clothes buried in the rainforest for more than 20 years would have decomposed already, as opposed to the near intact fabrics presented to the court in 2016.

Manila RTC Branch 32 judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina declared that the prosecution “failed to pass the exacting standard of moral certainty to discharge its burden of establishing the guilt of accused-movants to secure their conviction for the crimes charged and overcome their constitutional presumption of innocence.”

Bunyi-Medina granted the demurrer separately filed by farmers Norberto Murillo, Dario Tomada and Oscar Belleza and court granted the same to co-accused Satur Ocampo, Rafael Baylosis, Adelberto Silva, Norberto Murillo, Dario Tomada, Oscar Belleza, Exuperio Lloren, and Vicente Ladlad.

The court also dismissed the cases against Tiamzon, Wilma Austria-Tiamzon, Felomino Salazar, Presillano Beringel, Luzviminda Orillo, Muco Lubong, and Felix Dumali whom the prosecution had already terminated the presentation of its evidence but who had not filed their demurrer.

“We laud Judge Bunyi-Medina for keeping the integrity of the court and to push for peace despite Esperon’s moves that were obviously designed to frighten everyone to do his bidding–convict the individuals the government implicated. Judge Bunyi-Medina’s decision is significant in our fight against the government’s binge of filing clearly fabricated cases to harass, threaten and persecute activists,” said Lim.

Ocampo also thanked Bunyi-Medina in this Kodao interview. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)