Two Statements
Estrada will not fulfill his promise

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

by Jose Maria Sison
Chief Political Consultant
NDFP Negotiating Panel

From the statement of September 13, 1998

It is doubtful whether Mr. Joseph Estrada means to deliver on his promise to indemnify the human rights claimants. There are at least five major indications.

First, in violation of The Hague Joint Declaration, he (Estrada) has demanded the surrender of the NDFP to the GRP constitutional framework as precondition ...for the resumption of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations and the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL)...

Second, Estrada himself is playing off Robert Swift against SELDA as the legitimate representative of the human rights claimants.

Third, Estrada is engaged in a zarzuela with the Marcos family in which Imelda alternates between making and withdrawing an offer for the benefit of the human rights claimants and Estrada takes the posture of wishing more than what she offers.

Fourth, Estrada has made his promise to indemnify the human rights claimants in order to make a passing publicity stunt and draw attention away from the scandalous reality that the Marcos family and the biggest Marcos cronies are recovering their sequestered wealth and are again enjoying privileges to further exploit the people and loot the economy.

Fifth, Howard Dee has been retained as GRP negotiating panel head because of his notorious penchant for demanding the capitulation of the NDFP and declaring collapses and indefinite suspensions of the formal meetings in the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations.

It is clear that all along the Estrada regime has been acting in bad faith towards the NDFP. The revolutionary forces and the people must prepare against the escalation of armed counterrevolution by the US-Estrada regime. This regime cannot really render justice to the victims of human rights violations under the Marcos regime but can only perpetrate further violations of human rights.

10 December 1998
English Edition

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	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