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PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines
NDFP hits GRP consent on US interference
March 31, 2004
Oslo, Norway
The NDFP panel in the peace negotiations hit the GRP for giving its consent to the interference of the US in the internal affairs of the country. The US action in putting the CPP-NPA in its so-called �terrorist� list is considered by the NDFP a blatant act of interference in the internal affairs of the Philippines and tramples upon the national sovereignty of the Filipino people.
The US wants to use the �terrorist� listing in the peace negotiations to pressure the NDFP to surrender even without solving the problems of the Filipino people that are at the root of the armed conflict. The GRP appears to be singing the same song.
It applauded the US action one day after the US included the CPP-NPA and NDFP Consultant Jose Maria Sison in the �terrorist� list. GRP President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself applauded the action of the Netherlands government to put the CPP-NPA and Jose Maria Sison in its own �terrorist� list two days later. The then Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople went around Europe to campaign for the inclusion of the CPP-NPA in the EU �terrorist� list.
NDFP Panel Chair Luis G. Jalandoni especially objected to the distortion by the GRP of its own commitment in the Oslo Joint Statement regarding the �terrorist� listing. The GRP position is that it cannot ask the US and the EU to take the CPP-NPA from the list because it is their independent sovereign decision.
�The GRP is very much concerned with the sovereignty of other countries but it cares nothing when foreign powers trample upon the sovereignty of the Filipino people,� Jalandoni said.
The NDFP panel is becoming pessimistic that anything substantial can be achieved in the ongoing peace negotiations. If the GRP cannot honour its commitments in the Oslo Joint Statement and with regards to the release of political prisoners whose release orders had been signed in 2001, what assurance does the NDFP have that the GRP will honour future commitments?
Reference:
Ms. Ruth de Leon
NDF Negotiating Panel Secretariat Head
Telephone: 31-30-2310431
Fax: 31-30-2322989
E-mail: [email protected]
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