GRP discards peace talks
The puppet Macapagal-Arroyo regime has had greater gall to implement pro-imperialist and militarist measures in the face of intensifying US military intervention. Among the "casualties" of such brazenness are the peace talks with both the NDFP and MILF.
In the case of the NDFP, the reactionary government categorized the CPP, NPA and Comrade Jose Ma. Sison as "terrorists," in violation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees, the accord that ensures the security of persons involved in the talks. At the same time, the government campaigned before the US and European governments to include Comrade Sison as well as the CPP and NPA on their lists of "foreign terrorist organizations." The objective was to push the revolutionary forces into signing a "final peace agreement" that called for nothing less than the surrender of arms and the capitulation of the entire revolutionary movement.
It was Malaca�ang's refusal to withdraw its terrorist categorization of the revolutionary movement and its continued insistence on surrender instead of resolving on the negotiating table the roots of the Philippine civil war that obstructed the peace talks. Malaca�ang declared the peace talks' indefinite suspension as a step towards eventually discarding them altogether.
The regime made practically the same maneuvers to discard the ceasefire agreement and peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. From February 11, intense military operations pummelled the Liguasan Marsh in North Cotabato and Maguindanao, in violation of the existing ceasefire agreement between the GRP and MILF.
The AFP launched the operations to force the MILF to accept provisions of an agreement prepared by the regime along the framework of the MILF's surrender. As with the NDFP, the GRP issued an ultimatum to the MILF: should the latter not accede to the proposed framework for the talks, the MILF will be considered "terrorist" and attacks against it will be intensified. In the face of such a serious insult to, and repudiation of, the ceasefire agreement, the MILF declared that the peace talks have ended and that it was time to launch a guerrilla counter-offensive against the AFP.
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