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Reds hit defense chief for allegedly spreading lies about CPP
By Delfin Mallari Jr.
Inquirer Southern Luzon
http://services.inquirer.net/print/print.php?article_id=20100215-253337
Posted date: February 15, 2010
LUCENA CITY, Quezon — An official of the communist-led National Democratic
Front of the Philippines (NDFP) assailed acting Defense Secretary Norberto
Gonzales for saying that the self-exiled leaders of the revolutionary movement
no longer enjoy the support and trust of the local members of the Communist
Party of the Philippines (CPP).
“I hereby inform Gonzales and the rest of the reactionary government of Gloria
M. Arroyo that the NDFP Negotiating Panel continues to enjoy the confidence
of the CPP and all other revolutionary forces, which compose the NDFP,” Fidel
Agcaoili, chair of the NDFP-human rights committee, said in a statement sent
Monday.
He added: “Prof. Jose Maria Sison also continues to enjoy the confidence of
the NDFP Negotiating Panel as its chief political consultant.”
Gonzales claimed that CPP founder Sison has not been in control of the
organization for some time and has been replaced by the couple Benito
and Wilma Tiamzon who were both based here in the country.
According to military files, Benito is the present CPP vice chair while Wilma
is a member of the CPP central committee
Sison, Agcaoili and Luis Jalandoni, NDFP peace panel head, all live in self-exile
in the Netherlands.
Gonzales also announced that the government has been weighing whether
to continue or stop peace negotiations with the NDFP officials abroad and
instead, pursue localized peace talks.
Agcaoili retorted that the NDFP has also lost interest in negotiating with a
“lame duck regime” of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, whose term of
office will officially end on June 30.
“Especially because this regime (Arroyo administration) continues to daydream
about destroying the revolutionary mass movement of the Filipino people with
brute military force and cheap psy-war tricks that include fake localized peace
talks with its own military troops and distribution of dole-outs to them,” he said.
Agcaoili also lambasted Gonzales for the “arbitrary arrest and detention, torture
and other violations of the human rights” of the 43 health workers in Morong,
Rizal last week.
“The gross attack on the human rights of the victims carries the trade mark
and paranoid style of Gonzales,” said the NDFP official.
Agcaoili noted that no less than Gonzales’ predecessor, former Defense Secretary
Gilberto Teodoro, criticized the way the state security forces failed to comply
with the Supreme Court order to present the 43 abductees to the Court of
Appeals.
“Gonzales should resign if he has any sense of shame left. But instead, he remains
silent on the issue of the Morong 43 which has already caught the attention of
the nation and the whole world, and he tries in vain to deflect attention from
the issue by speculating on the composition of the central leadership of the
Communist Party of the Philippines and by arrogantly announcing that his
reactionary government would no longer negotiate with the National Democratic
Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Negotiating Panel headed by Luis Jalandoni,”
he said.
Meanwhile, militant groups accused Gonzales of being the “mastermind if not,
one of the key security officials who gave the order to abduct and torture
the 43 doctors and health workers."
In a joint statement, Danilo Ramos, secretary general of Kilusang Magbubukid
ng Pilipinas (KMP, Peasant Movement of the Philippines), John Milton Lozande
of Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (Union of Workers in Agriculture),
Cherry Clemente of Anakpawis party list, Lito Bais, acting president of United
Luisita Workers Union (ULWU), Zen Soriano of Amihan peasant women federation
and Fernando Hicap, chair of the left-leaning fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas
ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said any congressional investigation
or appropriate probe conducted by any government agency should have Secretary
Gonzales both as a prime suspect and hostile witness.
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