Pilgrims for Peace forum on the peace talks
with NDFP negotiating panel chair Luis Jalandoni
and panel member Coni Ledesma
Mary School of Theology
Quezon City
September 2, 2011
Covenant for Peace: Seeking a negotiated resolution of the armed conflict
 |
 |
|||
|
Luis Jalandoni, Coni Ledesma: They stand for just and lasting peace |
||||
|
|
||||
|
x
Press statement |
 |
||||
 |
|||||
 |
x
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
|
||||
 |
|||||
 |
|||||
 |
|||||
|
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
--------------------------------------------------------------------
National Democratic Front of the Philippines --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PRESS STATEMENT
Aquino regime Is responsible for scuttling peace
negotiations
However, the Aquino regime keeps on blocking
the holding of formal talks by maliciously refusing to comply with signed
agreements in the Oslo Joint Statements of January and February 2011 to
release all or most of the 17 individuals protected under the Joint
Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).
Through its Office of the Presidential Adviser
on the Peace Process (OPAPP), its Negotiating Panel and its Armed Forces
of the Philippines (AFP), the Aquino regime has issued a series of press
statements denying its obligation to comply with signed agreements and
arrogantly boasting that agreements in the peace negotiations between the
NDFP and the Government of the Philippines (GPH) amount to nothing.
The Aquino regime has practically terminated
the JASIG by declaring it “inoperative”, thereby putting at risk the lives
of all those protected by the JASIG, including those from both sides who
are publicly known to be involved in the peace negotiations, from the
armed agents and/or unscrupulous elements in the GPH. One spokesperson of
the AFP has gone so far as to say that Oplan Bayanihan must be pursued
single-mindedly and that there is no need for peace negotiations.
It is becoming clear that the Aquino regime
lacks the political will to continue with the peace negotiations. The
regime does not have the integrity and word of honor to comply with signed
agreements. It is hopelessly servile to US dictates, so manifest in its
pursuit of the US-designed Oplan Bayanihan. The Aquino regime has no use
for the peace negotiations except for psywar for a while but to scuttle
these ultimately in order to further escalate military campaigns of
suppression and the most brazen human rights violations against the
people.
For multimedia, archived materials, and
additional information about the NDFP and the Philippine revolutionary
struggle, please visit our websites:
|
 |
||||
|
|
|||||
 |
|||||
|
|
|||||
 |
|||||
 |
|||||
 |
|||||
 They all stand for just and lasting peace |
|||||
|
x
Prepare for escalation of Aquino's war of
suppression Judging by the acts and statements of the Philippine government (GPH) and its representatives over the past few weeks, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the Aquino regime is determined to put an end to peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and further escalate its war of suppression under the US-designed Oplan Bayanihan.
Working under the baton of his US
counterinsurgency advisers, GPH President Benigno Aquino III and his
negotiating panel have shown outright antipathy to abiding by the joint
agreements, including the Oslo Joint Statements of January and February
2011, where his government agreed to expedite the release of at least
seventeen JASIG-protected NDFP consultants currently detained by the GPH,
as well as more than 350 political prisoners. The GPH has consistenly
failed to honor its word as it adamantly refuses to be bound by the
agreements with the NDFP. It has gone to the extent of declaring the JASIG
as “inoperative,” putting the entire peace negotiations with the NDFP on
the brink of collapse.
After only a few months, it has become obvious
that the GPH is only interested in using the peace negotiations with the
NDFP as a bait to hook the revolutionary forces into agreeing to one
ceasefire after another, without addressing the socio-economic and
political issues that lie at the roots of the armed conflict.
Aquino has shown zero interest in addressing
the roots of the civil war. His only interest is to decimate the
revolutionary armed forces and put an end to the Filipino people’s
resistance through armed suppression. There has been a renewed campaign of
extrajudicial killings against activists under the Aquino regime that has
already claimed at least fifty victims. The Aquino regime has also
repeatedly employed state brutality to suppress demonstrations and mass
struggles.
The scourge of Oplan Bayanihan is wreaking
havoc in the countryside, with the AFP carrying out intelligence,
civil-military and “search and destroy” operations. The AFP targets entire
communities where people are actively engaged in mass struggles,
especially against the land grabbing and against the incursion of
destructive foreign mining operations. Communities where people actively
defend their political, economic, environmental and cultural rights are
automatically suspected by the AFP of being “NPA sympathizers” and become
subject to Oplan Bayanihan operations.
Under the signboard of “peace and
development,” fascist units of the AFP have been escalating militarization
in the countryside, leaving a bloody trail of human rights violations.
Entire villages are put under military rule. In violation of international
humanitarian law, soldiers set up detachments in barrio centers, occupying
school buildings and school grounds, taking over barangay halls and other
civilian community facilities. The military requires villagers to
contribute wood and other building materials and uses forced labor in the
construction of its detachments. Young peasants are forced to serve as
guides in the military’s “search and destroy” operations.
The AFP imposes a reign of terror over wide
swathes of the countryside. Reactionary troops violate the rights of
thousands of people when they impose economic and food blockades, require
identification documents for travel, restrict people from working in their
fields, set limits to the volume of commodities they could buy and impose
other fascist methods of population control. They engage in psychological
warfare against the people. Under threat of harm, they force the people to
identify local mass leaders and activists. They disguise their military
operations with so-called medical missions and by combining with the
social welfare department in implementing the Aquino regime’s cash doleout
program to draw the people away from waging democratic and mass struggles.
The Aquino regime prioritizes Oplan Bayanihan
to the detriment of social services. In his proposed 2012 budget, Aquino
allocates an additional 7.2% (P28.7 billion) for the Philippine Army’s
counter-guerrilla operations but has slashed the budget for higher
education by at least P230 million and the public health budget by at
least P400 million. Furthermore, the Aquino regime has allocated at least
P40 billion for the AFP’s modernization program in the next five years. In
support of the AFP’s “modernization program”, the US government has
extended its Excess Defense Articles program to provide the Phlippine
military access to US military equipment.
With the Aquino regime already laying the
ground for the scuttling of the peace negotiations, the Filipino people
must prepare for the escalation of the reactionary war of suppression.
Military abuses, human rights violations and state brutality under the
Aquino government are bound to worsen as the ruling system sinks from one
deep crisis to another.
The Filipino people have no other recourse but
to intensify their revolutionary armed struggle and democratic mass
resistance. They must strengthen their will and militancy in the face of
escalating state terrorism. They must actively expose and vigorously
oppose military abuses and violations of human rights. They must shield
their schools and their homes from military occupation. Through collective
struggle, they must drive away the armed fascists from their communities
and combine this with the intensification of their antifeudal and
anti-imperialist struggles.
The revolutionary forces will continue to
engage the GPH in peace negotiations as long the GPH shows serious intent
and willingness to talk within the framework set by The Hague Joint
Declaration and respect and abide by all previous agreements.
At the same time, in the face of the
escalation of the Aquino regime’s war of suppression, the Communist Party
of the Philippines directs the New People’s Army (NPA) to continue
intensifying guerrilla warfare in order to defend the people against the
fascist onslaughts and brutalities of the AFP. This is also a response to
the call of the CPP to fulfill the requirements for advancing to the next
higher stage of people’s war. The NPA must recruit more Red fighters and seize more weapons from the enemy. It must carry out one tactical offensive after another in order to disrupt and defeat the AFP’s counterrevolutionary campaign of suppression.
|
|||||
|
National Democratic Front of the Philippines
|
Norwegian envoy’s meeting with US officials raises
questions on peace role |
||||
|
The NDF-EV spokesperson said the soldiers' violations of the rights of
civilians unmask the grim reality behind the "peace and development"
psywar of 8th ID chief Gen. Mario Chan. "These soldiers forcibly control
the civilians by conducting 'censuses' and demanding 'surrenders.' They
constantly harass the civilians about the presence of the NPA. They also
force the civilians to build their camps and supply wood. The soldiers are
also notorious for drinking, gambling and using their weapons to
intimidate civilians."
|
|||||
| = | |||||
| == | |||||
|
x
Bayan welcomes resumption of peace talks
“There is a need for both panels to discuss
issues of socio-economic reforms in the light of the worsening economic
crisis. Prices keep going up and the Aquino government is not offering
immediate relief for the people. There is also a need to address
outstanding violations of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human
Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHIHL) committed by the
Arroyo regime, as well as those committed under the Aquino regime,” said
Bayan chair Carol Araullo.
“We also hope that the issue of political
prisoners, from the 13 NDFP consultants to the more than 300 other
political detainees most of whom were arrested under Arroyo’s term, will
be addressed by the peace talks. The release of these political prisoners
is long overdue,” she said.
Bayan said that it was concerned of moves to
change the constitution to allow 100% foreign ownership of land, media and
educational institutions. It said that the move will further deepen
poverty while strengthening foreign control over the economy.
“The Aquino government should value the peace
talks as an alternative way to address the current crisis. There are
various substantial and workable proposals from the NDFP to develop the
Philippine economy for the benefit of the Filipinos,” she said. Proposals on the socio-economic reform agenda include a sweeping land reform program, national industrialization, the environment, food security among others. ### |
|||||
|
x
Philippine Peace Center
Meanwhile, the NPA, the CPP’s military unit
still has in custody four officials of the Bureau of Jail Management and
Penology who were given prisoners of war status, and abducted Lingig,
Surigao del Sur Mayor Henry Dano, reportedly to be tried at a people’s
court. |
|||||
|
x
DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE OF THE MALICIOUS CONNIVANCE
|
|
||||
| ** | |||||
