By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
NDFP Chief Political Consultant
June 29, 2018

Some news reports claim that I have canceled or terminated the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations. Only the National Council of the NDFP can make the decision to suspend, cancel or terminate the peace negotiations with GRP and has not yet made such a decision. I can only make the pertinent advice to the Council in my capacity as Chief Political Consultant.

In the Forum on Peace Under Siege, I made a critical review of the behavior of Duterte in relation to the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations. And I deplored among other things his failure to fulfill 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.

In discussing the prospects of resuming the peace negotiations. I made the estimate that Duterte will render the resumption 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 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.

I let Duterte have the singular dishonor of repeatedly terminating the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations within so short a time. As I have repeatedly pointed out, Duterte is not interested in the peace negotiations but in scapegoating the CPP and NPA 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.###