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NDFP Position on Ceasefire
and Peace Negotiations
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chief Political Consultant
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
3 July 2007
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) maintains the position that
the peace negotiations between itself and the Government of the Republic of the
Philippines (GRP) are ongoing because no side has declared the termination of the
Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).
But my prognosis is that the GRP will cause the permanent termination of said peace
negotiations by proscribing the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), the New
People's Army (NPA) and the NDFP chief political consultant as "terrorists" and
taking actions against them in violation of The Hague Joint Declaration, JASIG and
other mutual agreements, especially the Oslo Joint Statements I and II, which are
anathema to the "terrorist" blacklist.
The GRP, particularly the Arroyo regime, cannot pressure and force the NDFP to
capitulate under the guise of an unwarranted ceasefire by using as leverage the
gross and systematic human rights violations that it has already committed against
NDFP personnel, consultants and other people and by threatening to use the
Human Security Act (Anti-Terror Law) as a license for escalating human rights violations.
The NDFP is well aware that the Malacanang-directed butchers in the GRP military
and police forces are aiming to commit more atrocities against the revolutionary
forces and people with far more impunity as soon as there is a ceasefire that amounts
to a capitulation and pacification of the revolutionary forces.
The NDFP has made clear its just and reasonable position: it is willing to resume the
formal talks of the peace negotiations on the remaining issues in the substantive
agenda (socio-economic and political reforms) if exploratory talks can bring about
a formal written agreement on certain prejudicial questions, such as the ongoing
human rights violations by the regime, the murder and kidnapping of NDFP personnel
and consultants, the "terrorist" listing of the CPP, NPA and NDFP by foreign governments
and the indemnification of the victims of human rights violations under the Marcos
regime.
The NDFP is also willing to enter into a ceasefire agreement under its proposed
10-point Concise Agreement for an Immediate Just Peace. But it is certainly unwilling
to accept any kind of ceasefire which blatantly violates or runs counter to the existing
agreements between the GRP and NDFP, the national and democratic principles of
the NDFP and the people's demand for the adoption of basic socio-economic and
political reforms to address the roots of the armed conflict.
The NDFP represents revolutionary people and forces that are battle-tested under
the circumstances of the Anti-Subversion Law, the Marcos fascist dictatorship and
subsequent regimes. It is not at all frightened by the oppressiveness and brutality
of state terrorism unleashed by the extremely corrupt and bankrupt Arroyo regime
in subservience to imperialist interests. On the other hand the horrible crimes of the
regime impel the revolutionary forces and the people to fight more resolutely and
vigorously for their national and democratic rights.
The Filipino people and revolutionary forces know how the false illusion of economic
growth is conjured by a mounting foreign and local debt for the purpose of upper
class-consumption rather than real development through national industrialization
and land reform. They are determined to take concrete actions against the imperialist
and big comprador-landlord interests that wish to further grab the land, mineral
resources, state assets and other wealth of the country.
The Arroyo regime is hell-bent on suppressing the Filipino people and revolutionary
people by murdering, kidnapping, torturing and driving them away from their homes
and land. But the Filipino people and revolutionary forces have always strongly
manifested their determination to defend themselves and wage resistance, punish
the worst of human rights violators and plunderers and build the new organs of
democratic power to replace the ruling system of greed and terror. ###
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