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CPP: ‘Lorenzinitis’ afflicts the peace process

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The Information Bureau of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) lashed back at Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, saying the former general is the one defining the Rodrigo Duterte government’s policies on the peace talks.

Reacting to an article titled “The Public Should Know” attributed to Lorenzana, the CPP said the secretary defines the Duterte government’s so-called anti –peace policy “based on his one-track militarist mindset.”

“To Lorenzana and his ilk of fascists, including Duterte himself, the only solution to the civil war in the country is the military solution. This is the old 1930s dogma promoted by the US military [that] sees profit in every war it instigates and foments,” the CPP said in a statement.

CPP Information Bureau graphic describing Lorenzana’s so-called affliction.

The group said Lorenzana is a war promoter and consummate militarist who wants no non-military end to the civil war in the Philippines.

“He fears losing significance if the present civil war in the country is settled politically through peace negotiations. To him, the only solution is to recruit more and more soldiers to the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) in order to lay siege on thousands of barrios nationwide and sow terror among the people,” the CPP said.

A consistent critique of the peace process between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), Lorenzana again urged the Duterte administration to stop talking peace with the communists despite the President’s repeated clarification that he is only taking time off to review past agreements between the parties.

Lorenzana said negotiations on social and economic reforms are dangerous, blaming NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison for the agreements reached by the negotiating panels thus far.

“Let us not be lulled or hoodwinked by Sison’s glib tongue about reforms. They will institute reforms all right, but along communist lines when they have finally won,” Lorenzana wrote.

“In fact, they don’t even have to win because their socialistic CASER, which they are trying to ram down our throats, will ensure that they will have a foothold in governance,” he added.

Lorenzana threatened to pursue localized peace talks instead.

The New People’s Army has never agreed to negotiate with the government, however, repeatedly saying the NDFP Negotiating Panel is their only representative to the peace talks.

The CPP said the defense secretary’s wild and violent imagination as well as ”allergy to peace” are symptoms to an affliction called “lorenzanitis”.

“To the broad masses of workers and peasants, Duterte, Lorenzana and the AFP, are the real terrorists. Lorenzana, who once served as the military attache in Washington, is a big United States (US) military sales agent in the Philippine government,” the CPP said.

The CPP recalled that Lorenzana rejected the 5,000 assault rifles from China for the AFP and disposed it to the Philippine National Police instead.

“He is the zealous US sentry that ensures that the AFP will always remain as the key pillar of US hegemonism in the Philippines,” the group added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Baylosis files contempt charges against warden

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Detained National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) consultant Rafael Baylosis filed  a petition for indirect contempt Friday against the warden of the Metro Manila District Jail-4 for refusing to release him despite a court order.

In his petition filed at the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (QC-RTC), Baylosis said Jail Chief Inspector Jojie Jonathan Pangan’s refusal to release him is an act constituting improper conduct.

Pangan’s snub of the court order tend to impede, obstruct, or degrade the administration of justice, is disobedience to a lawful order, and tantamount to disrespect to the authority of the court, Baylosis said.

Branch 100 of the QC-RTC ordered Baylosis’s release last June 14 upon his posting of a bail bond to allow him to participate in the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations.

Baylosis’s release order is valid and existing despite yet another cancellation of formal talks between the NDFP and the Rodrigo Duterte government, Baylosis’s lawyer and Public Interest Law Center (PILC) managing counsel Rachel Pastores said in a statement.

“[Baylosis] has no warrant of arrest in any other case. So there’s no reason for the jail warden to disobey the release order,” Pastores said.

“His continued, unreasonable refusal to implement it is a contemptuous act which not only violates Baylosis’ rights.  It clearly shows disdain of the court which must be punished,” Pastores explained.

“The warden is not above the law.  He is mandated to follow the rules and the law. It is in the public interest that warden’s willful defiance of a court order be sanctioned,” she stressed.

Baylosis was to participate in the scheduled preliminary meetings and formal talks in The Netherlands and Norway earlier this month as a member of the NDFP’s Ceasefire Committee.

The Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process as well as the Department of Justice has reportedly posed no objection to the PILC’s petition for bail for Baylosis to allow him to negotiate the aborted coordinated unilateral ceasefire (CUC) between the NDFP and GRP.

Baylosis has been part of the peace negotiations in various capacities since 1996.

Arrested with a companion in Quezon City last February, Baylosis is facing charges of illegal possession of firearm and explosive at RTC Quezon City, Branch 100.

Pastores said the charges are trumped up by the Philippine National Police. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Joma says only NDFP Council decides on talks termination

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Jose Maria Sison clarified that he did not terminate the peace negotiations between the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP), saying it is only their group’s National Council that can make the decision to suspend, cancel or terminate their peace negotiations with the government.

“[The NDFP] has not yet made such a decision,” Sison said in a statement Friday, June 29.

Reacting to news reports that he has cancelled or terminated the peace negotiations, Sison said that he only made a critical review of GRP President Rodrigo Duterte’s behaviour in relation to the stalled peace negotiations.

“I deplored among other things his failure to fulfil his promise to amnesty and release all political prisoners and his repeated whimsical termination of the negotiations as many as three times. It is very likely that he will convert his three-month suspension of the formal talks to one more termination,” Sison said.

In his presentation to a forum entitled “Political implications of the current impasse and prospects of the GRP-NDFP peace talks Thursday, Sison said that based on the implications drawn from the current impasse, the NDFP can no longer negotiate with a GRP that is headed by Duterte.

“So long as he heads the GRP, the Filipino people, especially the oppressed and exploited, cannot expect any benefit from negotiating with the Duterte regime,” Sison, speaking via online streaming from The Netherlands, said.

In his clarification issued Friday, Sison said he made the estimate that Duterte will render the resumption of formal negotiations impossible by imposing on the NDFP the demand that the venue be shifted to Manila.

“The NDFP will not agree to such a demand because it violates the JASIG (Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees) provision for a neutral venue abroad and because NDFP does not want to put its negotiating panel and related personnel under the control, surveillance and duress by Duterte and the military,” Sison said.

Sison added he let Duterte have the singular dishonor of repeatedly terminating the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations within so short a time, repeatedly pointing out that Duterte is not interested in the peace negotiations but in scapegoating the CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines) and NPA (New People’s Army) for the purpose of declaring martial law nationwide or a state of emergency “in his mad drive to establish a fascist dictatorship under the guise of charter change to federalism.”

“In this regard, I have observed that it would be easier to cause the ouster of Duterte than to expect a just and honorable peace agreement with GRP under his command,” Sison explained.

Sison earlier said that while NDFP is not completely closing the door on the peace negotiations, the NDFP will study very carefully any offer by the government to resume formal peace negotiations.

‘Let Duterte do it’

In the said forum, NDFP chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili said their group has always readied itself for any breakdown in the talks.

“It’s nearing untenable stratus,” Agcaoili, also speaking via online streaming, said, citing the Duterte government’s new measures like the crackdown on street loiterers and continuing killings linked to its drug war.

Acaoili also said Duterte’s incendiary remarks, the arrests and killings of activists and threats against churches and human rights groups are meant to provoke rebel forces.

Agcaoili said Duterte should be the one to finally terminate formal peace negotiations with the NDFP.

“Siya mag-terminate,” Agcaoili said. (Let [Duterte] terminate.)

“Any side can move to terminate. But if we walk first, he will use it as an excuse to unleash his fascist dictatorship,” he added.

Agcaoili said the revolutionary forces must not let down its guard against Duterte.

“Revolutionary and progressive forces must exercise vigilance and be committed to act in self-defense, especially forces in the underground,” he said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Joma twits Duterte on sex video remark

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President Rodrigo Duterte has a really confused mind, replying with off topic answers, Jose Maria Sison said.

“Magulo talaga ang utak ni Duterte. Siya ang tanungin kung bakit bigla niyang binabanggit si Leila de Lima at iyong umano’y sex video,” Sison said of the President’s reply to his earlier announcement the National Democractic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) could no longer negotiate peace with the Duterte government and would be more productive if it joins forces with the Oust-Duterte movement

In Paglao, Bohol hours after Sison’s issued his statement, Duterte mockingly asked what forces would join the NDFP in ousting him.

“What forces? Who is willing to join him [Sison]? [Senator Leila] de Lima? My God!” Duterte told reporters at the 25th annual convention of the Vice Mayors’ League of the Philippines.

“Just watch the X-rated (video). It’s clear,” Duterte added, referring to the sex video that he alleged was of the detained de Lima.

“Non sequitur ang pagbanggit kay Leila de Lima,” Sison said.

‘Continue with the war’

Duterte said he is fine in continuing with the war against the Communist Party of the Philippines.

“If they are not willing to talk to me, that’s fine. I have no problem. So we continue with the war,” he said.

“If you want to overthrow my government, fine. If you are willing to talk, come here. If you don’t want, then it’s OK,” Duterte challenged Sison.

Duterte said he is wondering why Sison is not taking on his offer to let him visit the Philippines.

“Why is he not taking the chance of coming over? I might give to him the government on a silver platter,” he said.

Sison, however, said Duterte’s repeated offer to let him come home is a trap, as well as a violation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees to have the talks be held in a foreign neutral venue.

“The change of venue is so that Duterte and the military can put the NDFP under their control, surveillance duress and manipulation,” Sison said.

“Si Duterte ang nanira sa peace negotiations: tatlong terminations magmula May 2017 at isang pakunwaring postponement na intended to end the peace negotiation with his demand that violates the JASIG provision for a neutral venue abroad,” Sison added.

Speaking to a forum in Quezon City via video streaming Thursday (June 28), Sison said that while NDFP is not completely closing the door on the peace negotiations, the NDFP will study very carefully any offer by the government to resume formal peace negotiations. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Duterte insincere on talks – peace groups

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By April Burcer

June 21 should have been the day “Stand Down Agreement” between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) is signed, but the ceasefire did not push through because of the government’s decision to cancel formal talks between the parties.

In the “Are GRP-NDFP Peace Talks Still Possible with Pres. Duterte?” forum Thursday hosted by the group Pilgrims for Peace, Rey Casambre of the Philippine Peace Center said the Rodrigo Duterte government’s cancellation of the signing and implementation of the stand down agreement as well as the resumption of formal negotiations next week shows its insincerity in pursuing peace.

According to Casambre, another backchannel session is supposed to be the held as a final preparatory meeting being the government panel and NDFP finally resume formal negotiations.

Casambre also recalled that Duterte cancelled the fifth round of talks in May 2017 even as “all members of both panels as well third-party facilitators are already in The Netherlands.”

There have been three other attempts to hold the fifth round of formal talks in Europe, but were all cancelled by Duterte.

Last November, Duterte again cancelled at the 11th hours even after his negotiators have assembled in Europe for their third attempt at a fifth round of formal talks with the NDFP.

Duterte subsequently issued his Proclamation 360 on November 23 declaring the unilateral termination of the peace negotiations.

Even then, Duterte’s Proclamation 360 failed to follow the agreed process of talks termination, said Casambre.

“Any party can terminate the peace talks but there is a proper procedure. A written notice should be sent by the party who wants to terminate the peace talks. And there is another 30 days after receipt before the agreement is officially terminated. There was no written notice, it’s [just] a public declaration,” Casambre explained.

Duterte later added the issuance of Proclamation 374 declaring NDFP allied organizations, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA), as terrorist organizations.

Six hundred personalities were later listed by the Department of Justice as people behind the CPP and the NPA, including United Nations rapporteurs.

Bad Signal

It is not only with the NDFP that Duterte is insincere in talking peace, a Bangsamoro group said.

“For example, with the BBL (Bangsamoro Basic Law), even though it has been signed, we can only describe it as mangled, a sham, because the government can change it anytime. So the sincerity is a big question,”Jerome Succor Aba of SANDUGO and Moro Christian People’s Alliance (MCPA) said.

“The postponement of the peace talks brings a bad signal to the people of Mindanao. If there’s no peace talks, the human rights violations will double,” Aba said.

As the center of the armed conflict, Mindanao “calls for the resumption of the peace talks and honoring the agreements because what is happening in the peace talks have impact on the people,” Aba added.

He said, “We noticed that the time when the Proclamations 360 and 374 were issued were also the times when the military attacks in Mindanao were heightened. Since Martial Law was declared, more than 500,000 civilians evacuated from the area of conflict. Every week, farmers, Lumads and Moro are being killed.”

“What the AFP and Duterte government doesn’t realize is that Martial Law, in history, is what prompted the people to fight for freedom,” warned SANDUGO’s Kerlan Fanagel.

Disappointment and hope

Pilgrims for Peace and other peace advocates also expressed disappointment with the repeated postponement of the resumption of the formal talks.

“We want the peace negotiations to continue, to resolve the roots of the armed conflict. The bigger peace table with the Philippine citizenry has been on-going throughout the negotiations. The Filipino people want peace: both the peace that is the absence of armed conflict and, more importantly, peace that can be aided through agreeemnts like the anticipated Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforems (CASER),” the PFP statement said.

Casambre, however, said there is still hope for the peace talks.

“Yes, because there’s a people. Because when there’s a crisis, the people would make the parties go back to the peace negotiations,” Casambre said. #

Peace talks to possibly resume in September

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The peace talks between the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) may resume in September.

The NDFP said they have agreed to continue the peace negotiations with the Rodrigo Duterte government after listening to the GRP Panel’s explanation for the postponement of the resumption of the formal talks.

The group said a GRP team led by panel member Hernani Braganza travelled to Utrect, The Netherlands on June 18 to 20 to personally explain GRP’s cancellation of the June 28 resumption of formal negotiations.

In a separate statement, Braganza said they told the NDFP that Duterte wished for a three-month review of the documents forged during the backchannel talks.

No further explanation was given by the parties.

The NDFP and the GRP said the Royal Norwegian Government (RNG) attended the meetings as Third Party Facilitator (TPF).

The NDFP said the meeting did not immediately start because they had to clarify the role of the RNG following presidential spokesperson Harry Roque’s statement a TPF to the talks may no longer be necessary.

“The role of the TPF is of key importance while there is need to hold formal peace negotiations in a foreign neutral venue in compliance with the pertinent provision in the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees,” the NDFP said.

The group added that the parties’ agreements in the backchannel talks are binding.

“The agreements reached in the four rounds of informal talks in March, April, May and June 2018, remain valid and have the effect of continuing the peace negotiations under the direction of the principals and reaffirmation of previous agreements,” the NDFP said.

The GRP for its part said the agreements still include the planned visit of NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison to the Philippines.

“We extended the government panel’s appreciation to the NDF’s open-mindedness in coming to terms with President Duterte’s decision,” Braganza said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

NDFP consultants say AFP reason for talks cancellation

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Following another cancellation of the resumption of formal talks between the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines, peace consultants said it appears the Armed Forces of the Philippines is against the impending ceasefire.

In a press briefing, NDFP consultants and observers said the formal talks is still the best way to resolve the root causes of the armed conflict and not the militaristic solution the AFP wants the government to implement.

Itanong Mo Kay Prof: Peace Talks, muling kinansela ng GRP

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Panayam ni Prof. Sarah Raymundo kay Prof. Jose Maria Sison hinggil sa muling pagkansela ng GRP sa usapang pangkapayapaan nito kasama ang NDFP na dapat ay gaganapin sa parating na Hunyo 28, 2018.

Sison angry at planned dismissal of talks Third Party Facilitator

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An angry Jose Maria Sison called President Rodrigo Duterte a “political swindler” who is bent on sabotaging the peace negotiation between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

Reacting to presidential spokesperson Harry Roque’s announcement Monday Duterte no longer wants a third party facilitator in the peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the NDFP, Sison said the president is “willfuly and maliciously killing the peace negotiations by breaking the standing GRP-NDFP agreement on foreign neutral venue and dismissing the third party facilitator.”

“He is inflaming the civil war in the Philippines to justify his fascist dictatorship. He really does not want to have the peace negotiations,” Sison said of Duterte.

In a press conference in Malacañan, Roque said Duterte wants wants the peace talks to be held in the Philippines and not in Norway whose government has served as third party facilitator to the talks for close to two decades already.

The Royal Norwegian Government (RNG) is the Third Party Facilitator of the GRP-NDFP peace process since 2001, spending millions of Euros for the hosting and travel requirements of negotiators and staff of both parties through the years.

Roque said there is no need to hold the talks abroad, adding the government has a peace panel who has “the authority to fix the logistics.”

Asked who would facilitate the peace talks in the Philippines, Roque said, “Perhaps there would no longer be one.”

Roque added that the government would comply with whatever legal process must be undertaken to ensure that the peace negotiations will be held in the Philippines.

According to the  GRP-NDFP Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) of 1995, however, the parties agreed that the negotiations must be held in a neutral venue, which at the time was in Brussels, Belgium.

In their Oslo Joint Statement of February 14, 2004, the GRP and the NDFP issued an annex entitled “The Role of the Third Party Facilitator,” which was already The Royal Norwegian Government at the time.

Roque said that Duterte could not understand why the talks have to be held in Norway,

Sison however said the NDFP will never submit itself to surveillance, control and duress by Duterte’s “bloody regime and his military and police butchers and death squads,” adding there is a reason why both parties signed the JASIG mandating that talks should be held in a foreign neutral venue.

NDFP earlier said its negotiators and staff were arrested, tortured and killed when the first GRP-NDFP peace talks held in the Philippines collapsed in 1987, prompting the NDFP to insist on a foreign neutral venue when the negotiations resumed under GRP President Fidel Ramos in 1992.

“[Duterte] is hell-bent on scapegoating the CPP and NPA to justify his methods of fake surrenders and mass murders and enable him to impose on the people martial law nationwide and fascist dictatorship,” Sison said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

NDFP releases backchannel documents

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The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Negotiating Panel has given media outfits copies of the documents forged between them and representatives of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) negotiating panel after four rounds of backchannel talks in May and June.

NDFP chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili sent Kodao copies of the following:

  1. The Stand Down Agreement,
  2. Guidelines and Procedures towards an Interim Peace Agreement and the Resumption of Talks and its attached timetable,
  3. The Initialed Interim Peace Agreement, and
  4. The NDFP Proposed Draft of the Amnesty Proclamation which was given to the GRP and the Third Party Facilitator.

Agcaoili said they are giving copies of the documents “[i]n the interest of truth and transparency in view of the GRP’s unilateral decision to postpone the resumption of the talks in Oslo on June 28 and the apparent wish to have Prof. (Jose Maria) Sison visit the country even before the IPA(Interim Peace Agreement) and its component agreements and parts, the completion of the CASER (Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms) and the full implementation of the Amnesty Proclamation and release of all PPs (political prisoners).”

NDFP’s move came after the GRP unilaterally aborted the scheduled resumption of formal talks between the parties on June 28 in Oslo, Norway.

Earlier, NDFP chief political consultant Sison dared both parties to divulge the documents to both the media and the public after GRP peace adviser Jesus Dureza said the reason for the postponement was GRP President Rodrigo Duterte’s desire to consult the general public.

The NDFP and several peace advocates, however, dismissed the GRP’s statement, saying consultations may be conducted while negotiations are being held.

Kapayapaan Campaign for a Just and Lasting Peace blamed so-called militarists in government for the cancellation of the formal talks.

“That the suspension comes after a command conference with the Armed Forces of the Philippines shows the power that warmongers wield over the civilian branch of this government,” Kapayapaan said.

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) added that  Duterte’s nth time cancellation of the scheduled resumption of formal peace negotiations is totally unacceptable.

“He has also canceled the scheduled stand down that was set to take effect one week before the formal talks,” CPP said.

The following are the documents signed between the NDFP and the GRP Agcaoili said were witnessed by the Third Party Facilitator, the Royal Norwegian Government:

 

The Stand Down Agreement

 

NDFP-GRP Stand Down Agrement page 1.

NDFP-GRP Stand Down Agrement page 2.

 

Guidelines and Procedures towards an Interim Peace Agreement and the Resumption of Talks and its attached timetable

Guidelines and Procedures towards an Interim Peace Agreement and the Resumption of Talks page 1.

Guidelines and Procedures towards an Interim Peace Agreement and the Resumption of Talks page 2.

Guidelines and Procedures towards an Interim Peace Agreement and the Resumption of Talks page 3.

Timetable of the Guidelines and Procedures towards an Interim Peace Agreement and the Resumption of Talks.

 

The Initialed Interim Peace Agreement

The Interim Peace Agreement page 1.

The Interim Peace Agreement page 2.

The Interim Peace Agreement page 3.

The Interim Peace Agreement page 10.

Note that only NDFP chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili and GRP panel member Hernani Braganza initialed the document. GRP’s Atty. Efren Moncupa and NDFP legal consultant Atty. Edre Olalia initialed the document as witnesses.

 

NDFP Proposed Draft of the Amnesty Proclamation  given to the GRP and the Third Party Facilitator

NDFP Proposed Draft of the Amnesty Proclamation given to the GRP and the Third Party Facilitator page 1.

NDFP Proposed Draft of the Amnesty Proclamation given to the GRP and the Third Party Facilitator page 2.

NDFP Proposed Draft of the Amnesty Proclamation given to the GRP and the Third Party Facilitator page 3.

 

(Raymund B. Villanueva)