Editorial:
Hold the GRP Accountable for its Obligations in the Human Rights Agreement

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

As its contribution to the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Ang Bayan is publishing this special issue on the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

This is a historic agreement since it significantly addresses the Filipino people�s aspirations for respect for human rights and international humanitarian law. Through it, the GRP formally acknowledges the existence of widespread violations of human rights in the country. The Agreement also stipulates the need to take concrete steps to rectify this situation and give justice to victims of fascist suppression and violence.

The Agreement was approved on April 10, 1998 by Comrade Mariano Orosa, Chairman of the NDFP National Council, and by President Joseph Estrada of the GRP on August 7, 1998. But the US-Estrada regime has, in various ways, been blocking its implementation.

As allied organizations of the NDFP and in accordance with the provisions of the Agreement, the Party and the New People�s Army stand for its immediate implementation, in its entirety and without reservation. Its implementation is the key to the continuation of the peace negotiations.

The GRP�s views and steps against the Agreement

Estrada did sign the CARHRIHL but issued a rider stating that it would be implemented "in accordance with the Constitutional and legal processes" of the GRP. When theGRP representatives arbitrarily insisted on extending the rider's coverage to include even the forces of the NDFP, they effectively brought the Agreement's actual implementation to a dead end.

Not long after, the GRP representatives argued that they have no obligations under the Agreement since their principal, Estrada, erred in signing and approving it. They would only implement the CARHRIHL and honor the signature of their own president if the NDFP submits itself to conditions tantamount to surrendering the independence and own political authority of the revolutionary movement. This violates the very spirit and principle of the peace talks that had earlier been mutually agreed upon.

Through such actuations, the GRP is exposing its insincerity regarding the peace talks and duplicity on the question of human rights. Estrada signed the Agreement not to seriously implement it, but to simply pass himself off as an advocate of human rights. It is also clear that the GRP has no intention of addressing the roots of the civil war in the Philippines. After more than five years of negotiations, it has yet to abandon its basic objective of simply effecting the surrender of the revolutionary forces through threats and deception.

By failing to honor the CARHRIHL, the GRP is hindering the progress of the peace negotiations towards the other items in the agenda pertaining to needed fundamental reforms and changes. It is not a remote possiblity that the GRP is pushing for the collapse of the peace talks as it further intensifies its onslaught against the revolutionary movement and suppression of the people's democratic rights.

The GRP's ploy of disregarding the Agreement was instigated primarily by US imperialism and its most reliable instrument in the country�the high command of the AFP and PNP. Amid a worsening economic crisis and the vigorous expansion and strengthening of the revolutionary armed movement, they are pushing for the all-out intensification of the counterrevolutionary war and the use of mailed-fist tactics to subjugate the struggling masses.

Hold the GRP accountable!

Although the GRP wants to dump it, the CARHRIHL should continue to be propagated and its contents explained to the broad masses of the people. The GRP should be compelled to honor its obligations under the Agreement it has signed, apart from holding it accountable for its other obligations to address the people's national and democratic rights and welfare. The democratic and progressive forces should militantly assert that the CARHRIHL be honored and implemented by the parties concerned.

The revolutionary movement signed the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law with no illusion that this would put an end to the gross violations by the fascist state of the people's democratic rights and freedoms. Still, the revolutionary movement is ever open and ready to cooperate in any effort to address in a significant manner the fundamental interests of the people.

From the onset, the Party and NPA have stood for the need to advance and intensify the armed revolution while conducting peace negotiations. The evident hypocrisy and contempt of the leaders and representatives of the reactionary puppet government for their own signature and the obligations they had voluntarily assumed in the course of the peace talks provide added bases for persevering in and further intensifying the armed revolution. The revolutionary forces are ever ready to rely on their own struggle to achieve a genuine, just and lasting peace.

10 December 1998
English Edition

	Editorial: Hold the GRP Accountable for its Obligations in the Human Rights Agreement
	CARHRIHL: Historic Document Born Out of the Filipino People�s Struggle for Human Rights
	The Tortuous Road of Peace Negotiations
	Defending the NDFP�s Revolutionary Integrity in the Peace Talks
	Two Statements Statement on human rights claims Under Article 5, Part III of CARHRIHL
	Two Statements Estrada will not fulfill his promise