Press Statement by Jose Maria Sison
NDFP Chief Political Consultant
April 14, 2019
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Filipino people should be alert to Duterte’s militarist purposes in announcing that he wishes to reopen the peace talks with the use of a militarized negotiating panel under the militarized office of the presidential adviser, General Galvez.
The NDFP does not want to be baited into accepting a war panel of the Duterte regime whose purpose is merely to seek the impossible, such as the surrender of the revolutionary forces, especially the New People’s Army.
Duterte must first answer the following prejudicial questions:
- Why did he terminate the peace negotiations and annul all agreements painstakingly made since the The Hague Joint Declaration of 1992?
- Why did he terminate and dismantle the GRP section of the Joint Monitoring Committee formed under the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Humans Rights and International Humanitarian Law?
The NDFP must remind Duterte that he cannot dictate the terms of whatever kind of negotiations he seeks from the revolutionary movement pf the people.
By all indications, Duterte is merely play-acting in the name of peace while carrying out an all-out war and scheming to rig the May 2019 elections in order to pave the way for a fascist dictatorship through charter change to a bogus federalism. ###
