PRESS STATEMENTS & INTERVIEWS, 2001 - Present

Press Statement

15 August 2002

US authorities are hell-bent on breaking up the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

They want to eliminate any prospect of a just and lasting peace in the Philippines and intensify the fighting between the armed forces of the GRP and NDFP. They want to increase US military forces and re-establish US military bases in the Philippines.

Their strategic objective is to tighten US control over Southeast Asia, keep it in line with Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, engage and contain China and prevent it from upsetting US hegemony in East Asia in the 21^st century.

Thus, the US has dictated upon the Macapagal puppet regime to declare and implement an all-out war policy against the revolutionary forces of the people and insult the NDFP with proposals for the capitulation of the revolutionary forces and violation of the The Hague Joint Declaration and subsequent agreements.

The US-dictated acts of the Macapagal puppet regime have been followed by the US act of "designating" the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) as "foreign terrorist organizations" for the purpose of undertaking repressive actions against the Europe-based chief political consultant and personnel of the NDFP negotiating panel.

The blatant attempt of both the US and the Macapagal puppet regime to demonise as "terrorist", intimidate and put under duress the NDFP negotiating panel and related NDFP personnel is calculated to humiliate the NDFP and force the break-up of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations. The US expects that such break-up will facilitate the realization of its scheme to escalate war and re-establish US military bases in the Philippines.

The NDFP Negotiating Panel holds both the US and Macapagal puppet regime responsible for violating the GRP-NDFP Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) by acting to persecute negotiators, consultants, advisors and staffers of the NDFP Negotiating Panel, to deprive them of the use of their small bank accounts and other legitimate resources abroad and to punish them for exercising their right to speak and other rights.

If the US and the Macapagal regime succeed in manipulating the Dutch and other European governments to abuse the Europe-based personnel of the NDFP, there will be far reaching consequences such as the end of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations and far more fierce fighting in the battlefield. The actions of the US and Macapagal regime run counter to the resolutions of the European Parliament endorsing and supporting the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations.

US-sponsored state terrorism is riding high in the Philippines. Gross human rights violations by the military, police and paramilitary forces of the Macapagal regime are rampant. Thus, the NDFP and the people are fervently interested in the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law. But the Macapagal regime has evaded the implementation of this agreement.

The broad masses of the people are suffering extreme oppression and exploitation. It is understandable why they are so determined to wage all forms of struggle against the Macapagal regime’s reign of terror and greed and against the escalating US military intervention. They wish to win the struggle for national liberation and democracy. #