By Imelda V. Abaño
Correspondent
Business Mirror
04 March 2012
JOSE MARIA SISON, the founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), who has been in self-exile in Utrecht, the Netherlands, said he will return to the country only if peace negotiations prosper under President Aquino.
“I have no immediate plans of returning to the Philippines,” Sison, also the chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front (NDF) told the BusinessMirror in an e-mail interview.
“I will certainly go home if and when the peace negotiations are successful or the revolutionary forces shall have won victory by overthrowing the ruling system.”
Sison also clarified issues that he won’t be running in the 2013 elections.
“I am not running for any position in the reactionary elections of 2013. It was only Noynoy [President Aquino] who floated [idea] that recently in an interview in Calapan City,” Sison said.
Asked on his assessment of the present administration, Sison said “the policies and ruling style of the Aquino administration are fundamentally similar to those of the Arroyo administration.”
“The Philippine Development Plan of [Mr.] Aquino is actually aimed at perpetuating underdevelopment and poverty. It allows the US and other multinational banks and companies and the local exploiting classes of big compradors and landlords to exploit the people and plunder the natural resources of the country,” Sison said.
He lamented that “like the Arroyo administration, the Aquino administration is corrupt.”
Sison said the infrastructure projects and all kinds of business privileges, including jueteng, are being cornered by Mr. Aquino, his relatives and friends.
“[Mr.] Aquino has failed to run after Arroyo for plunder and human-rights violations. Instead, the Aquino administration is now reeking with its own corruption and human-rights violations,” he said.
On the peace negotiations, Sison said that the Aquino administration “is still blocking the resumption of formal peace talks” because it continues to imprison more than 350 political prisoners in violation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law [CARHRIHL] and the Hernandez political offense doctrine.” In contrast, he said, Aquino released more than 400 military prisoners soon after he came to power.
“ Inviolation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees [Jasig], the Aquino administration has failed to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the murder, torture and illegal detention of NDF consultants and staffers who are entitled to Jasig protection,” he said.
Sison, however, said the Norwegian government and the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) are working hard to help pave the way for the resumption of formal talks.
Sison also assailed Secretary Teresita Deles of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (Opapp) and Chairman Alex Padilla of the government’s negotiating panel, calling them “stubborn and unreasonable.”
“Their main thrust is to nullify The Hague Joint Declaration, which they call a document of perpetual division, instead of being the document that opened the way to peace negotiations,” Sison said.
“They also want to nullify the Jasig and terminate the peace negotiations by refusing to release even the publicly known Jasig-protected prisoners and by taking advantage of the fact that the Arroyo administration connived with the Dutch government in seizing and destroying the keys to the computer discs bearing the information regarding the Jasig-protected consultants, security officers and staffers.”
Sison, however, said that he still hopes that the Aquino administration or the next administration “will engage in serious peace negotiations with the NDF.”
“I have gotten used to waiting for the next administration when a current reactionary administration proves to be against serious peace negotiations. I am also used to waiting for further advances in the armed revolution of the Filipino people,” Sison added.