gmanetwork.com
29 February 2012

The Communist Party of the Philippines has said the chances of it forging a peace agreement with the administration of President Benigno Aquino III is “dim.”

In a statement, the CPP also belied earlier newspaper reports that its founding chairman Jose Maria Sison has returned to the Philippines.

“The fact … is that there is no peace agreement with the Aquino regime, and the possibility of forging one remains dim. The Aquino regime has set itself solidly behind the US imperialists and against the Filipino people’s national and democratic interests,” it said.

It added, Aquino is “emboldened by US military support” and has chosen to heed American advice to treat peace negotiations as a “simple psywar tool” to “camouflage” its military campaign of suppression dubbed “Oplan Bayanihan.”

The CPP claimed the Aquino administration has chosen to keep some National Democratic Front (NDF) peace consultants in detention, supposedly in violation of standing agreements.

Also, it accused the Aquino administration of continuing to commit gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.

The CPP said it and the NDF had repeatedly offered to forge an agreement based on the principles of national sovereignty, democracy and social justice.

“The Aquino regime, however, has chosen to disregard such proposals and has placed itself squarely against the people and their revolutionary cause of national and social liberation,” it said.

Meanwhile, the CPP belied reports that Sison is in the Philippines, saying Sison remains in his residence in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

“So-called intelligence reports claiming that he has slipped into to the Philippines are utterly lacking in intelligence,” it said, adding it took a phone call by dzRH radio’s Jose Taruc to verify that Sison has not left Utrecht.

The CPP said the “absurd” reports of Sison’s return to the Philippines are being circulated by the intelligence personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. —