Editorial:
Prepare for and resist intensified military offensives and suppression after the release of the prisoners of war

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

The New People�s Army (NPA) successfully released General Obillo, Captain Montealto, Chief Insp. Bernal and Sergeant Lozada despite the deployment of a large number of enemy forces and widescale police and military offensives. This demonstrates without a doubt the capability of the NPA to capture and hold high officials of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) as prisoners of war. This also clearly proves the openness and flexibility of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) as it responded to the initiative and goodwill of private groups composed of bishops and prominent personalities�even as it firmly resisted and thwarted the brazen arrogance, threats, obstructive acts, forcible demands of capitulation, and all the other typical gangland style tactics of the Estrada regime.

Even Sergeant Demol, the spy taken prisoner by the NPA in Southern Tagalog, has also been released by the NPA. For a long time, he was abandoned by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the AFP despite having used him as a spy and saboteur against the revolutionary movement for many years. Worse, despite the NDFP�s commitment to free Demol, his release was delayed for a long period of time due to unrelenting and widescale military offensives in Rizal, Laguna and Quezon.

In any case, the NDFP�s release of its prisoners of war further brings to light the matter of the peace negotiations, and short-term and long-term issues that are intimately related to it. First among the short-term issues are the GRP�s violation of the Joint Agreement for Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and other accords signed by the two panels and the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement for the Respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) which have already been approved by both the GRP and the NDFP. The GRP continues to renege on its responsibility to free political prisoners and compensate the victims of human rights abuses under the Marcos dictatorship while cases of extrajudicial executions, abductions, torture, food blockades, bombing and forced evacuations continue to rise. Among the long-term issues are those of socioeconomic reforms and political and constitutional reforms which comprise the substantive agenda of the peace negotiations.

In spite of the Estrada regime�s promises, the future of the peace talks remains bleak. Not only did the regime ruin in half a year all the fruits of six years of difficult and complicated peace negotiations between the GRP and the NDFP. It continues to demolish any existing basis for the continuation of the peace talks.

Even before the capture of General Obillo and Captain Montealto, the peace talks had already been practically extinguished by the GRP under the Estrada regime when it sent the following clear messages to the NDFP:

• that the Joint Declaration of The Hague must be junked and replaced by a framework of capitulation and self-criminalization by the NDFP;
• that the JASIG, instead of being a set of guarantees that had been mutually agreed upon, is a list of favors from the GRP to the NDFP that may be suspended or discarded according to the GRP�s whims, and, moreover, that the provision for a neutral venue of negotiations overseas is no longer effective, and that the formal peace negotiations must be held in Manila, where it will certainly be subjected to the surveillance and will of the GRP as what transpired in 1986 and 1987;
• that the CARHRIHL is not in effect and could not be implemented unless the NDFP enters a framework of capitulation and self-criminalization and that the GRP may do anything it wants to violate the provisions of agreements entered into by both parties.

In violation of the CARHRIHL, the GRP under the Estrada regime implements the policy of extrajudicial executions, abduction, torture, food blockades, bombing and forced evacuation of the people. These blatant human rights violations are also flagrant violations of international humanitarian laws (the Geneva Convention and its protocols) that the NDFP observes, as manifested by the NDFP�s respect for the rights and humanitarian treatment of its prisoners of war.

In further violation of the CARHRIHL, the GRP refuses to repeal its repressive decrees, laws, policies and campaigns that violate human rights and even pushes for more legislation to worsen them. It uses the release of political detainees as a bargaining chip and connives with the Marcoses in deceiving the victims of human rights violations under the Marcos regime.

The GRP wishes to amend or replace the current constitution altogether in order to remove the provisions which it sees as hindrances to its policy of suppression and to allow the violation of every aspect of national sovereignty, such as laws that sell the nation�s patrimony and economy and the treaty regarding �visiting� foreign military forces.

The GRP disregards the NDFP�s protests regarding current human rights violations and refuses to abide by its obligations under the CARHRIHL and to discuss the wide range of issues covered by this agreement, including those concerning prisoners of war.

Instead of negotiating on the political basis and a secure mode of releasing General Obillo and Captain Montealto, the capture of these military officials in the ongoing war between the GRP and the revolutionary forces is being used by the GRP as an excuse to violate the JASIG and the CARHRIHL and to demolish the Joint Declaration of The Hague by forcibly demanding the capitulation of the NDFP.

As part of the GRP�s policy of turning its back on the peace negotiations and violating the CARHRIHL, it considers each act by the New People�s Army as an ordinary crime, when the former is in fact legitimate within the framework of the laws governing armed conflicts. The GRP makes it appear that revolutionaries, including the NDFP�s negotiators and consultants in the peace talks, are criminal conspirators and exacts retaliation on the political detainees by unjustifiably prolonging their incarceration.

The GRP under the Estrada regime has absolutely no intention of returning to the formal peace negotiations of the GRP and the NDFP. If it could not hold discussions with the NDFP regarding relatively minor matters such as the issue of a few prisoners of war, it could not possibly negotiate regarding the much larger issues of the substantive agenda of the peace negotiations.

Anyone with open eyes can see that the GRP, especially under the Estrada regime, has no interest in conducting serious peace negotiations to address the roots of civil war. Its only interest is to secure the surrender and pacification of the revolutionary people and forces. The Estrada regime has even been flaunting its eagerness for a military solution and its contempt for negotiations with the NDFP.

The NDFP released its prisoners of war in accordance with the revolutionary movement�s own conditions, as a way of enforcing democratic political power and authority, and in abiding with international humanitarian laws. Along with this, the revolutionary people and forces are absolutely ready to advance all forms of struggle against the Estrada regime, which has thoroughly proven to be a regime of the most evil political heirs of the Marcos dictatorship. Any promise by the Estrada regime to continue the peace negotiations between the GRP and the NDFP is meaningless because it has already violated, continues to violate, and is sure to continue violating the revered bilateral agreements between the GRP and the NDFP.

After the release of the prisoners of war, the revolutionary forces must be vigilant and prepared for more intense and more massive military offensives and suppression by the Estrada regime. They must intensify all forms of struggle and engage the regime in all possible arenas of struggle.

04 March 1999
English Edition

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