By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chief Political Consultant
NDFP Negotiating Panel
07 May 2013

By their pronouncements and actions, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) are highly desirous of continuing the peace negotiations between the Philippine reactionary government (GPH) and the NDFP in accordance with The Hague Joint Declaration and subsequent agreements.

As Luis Jalandoni, chairperson of the NDFP Negotiating Panel, has repeatedly confirmed, the members and consultants of his panel enjoy the full confidence of all members of the CPP Central Committee and the NDFP National Council. His panel continues to carry the authorization of the CPP and NDFP and is ever ready to resume the formal talks in the peace negotiations.

I am only the Chief Political Consultant of the panel. Since my arrest by the Marcos dictatorship in 1977, I have never claimed to be an official of the CPP Central Committee and the NDFP National Council. It is the journalists and my academic colleagues who accurately refer to me as the CPP Founding Chairman. This is a historic fact which I am always proud to acknowledge and include in my resume.

OPAPP secretary and GPH panel chairman Alex Padilla are presumptuous and ridiculous when they talk as if they had the power and right to choose the negotiators and consultants of the NDFP. They sink to the bottom of the garbage dump of intriques when they make false claims about my relations with the Tiamzons, whom I know to be excellent and sincere revolutionaries worthy of the highest respect.

The intrigues that Deles, Padilla and Lacierda are spewing out in the mass media are a desperate and futile attempt to obscure the real reasons why the regime is ending the peace negotiations, without giving the formal notice of termination to the NDFP. The real reasons are as follows:

First, the Aquino regime wants to scrap The Hague Joint Declaration and all subsequent agreements and to demonstrate that it does not have to negotiate with the NDFP because it depends totally on the violent and deceptive means under the US-designed Oplan Bayanihan.

Second, the Aquino regime is willing to talk to the NDFP only for the purpose of seeking the surrender and pacification of the revolutionary forces and people on the precondition of indefinite ceasefire that permanently evades the necessity of addressing the roots of the civil war through comprehensive agreements on basic social, economic and political reforms. The NDFP has already tested and proven on the “special track” that the Aquino regime is not willing to have a truce and cooperation with NDFP, even if such were based on a general declaration of common intent for the benefit of the people.

Third, the Aquino regime is allowing its corrupt bureaucrats and military officers to carry out fake localized talks and fake surrenders and to pocket privately lots of money from the Conditional Cash Transfer and PAMANA funds, which amount to more than Php 45 billion. The Commission on Audit has already exposed the misappropriation of such funds.

The much ballyhooed “new approach” of the Aquino regime involves the escalation of military campaigns of suppression and psychological warfare, the ending of the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations, replacing these with fake localized talks and fake surrenders and pocketing of CCT and PAMANA funds by corrupt bureaucrats and military officers.

The advice that I have given to the NDFP Negotiating Panel is to be always ready for peace negotiations on the basis of The Hague Joint Declaration and subsequent agreements. If the Aquino regime continues to be intransigent, its three remaining years is not too long to let pass. The puppet, exploitative, corrupt, brutal and mendacious character of the regime will further weaken the ruling system of big compradors and landlords.

The Aquino regime is a rabid follower of the bankrupt neoliberal economic policy and aggressive expansionism of the US. It pays no serious attention to the basic problems of the Filipino people but is overdependent on mere publicity stunts, rigged poll surveys and pre-programmed elections by Smartmatic. The ultra-reactionary character of the Aquino regime and the worsening economic and social crisis are favoring the growth of the people’s democratic government and the revolutionary forces and people supporting it. ###