PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines

CPP denounces US’s renewal of “terrorist” listing of CPP and NPA
August 10, 2004

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today denounced the renewal of the inclusion the CPP and NPA in the US listing of so-called "foreign terrorist organizations" as "outright interventionism in the internal affairs of the Philippines" and "a desperate attempt to draw attention away from its own actions and notoriety as the world’s no. 1 terrorist."

CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal said that "after unleashing so much terror in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, US imperialism, No. 1 global terrorist has no moral right and legitimacy to condemn Filipino revolutionaries as terrorists. In the first place, it has no real basis to do so."

Rosal was reacting to US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s decision to renew the inclusion of the CPP and the New People's Army (NPA) in the US listing of "Foreign Terrorist Organizations" (FTO).

"Sino ba talaga ang terorista?" ("Who is the real terrorist?"), Rosal asked, reiterating the CPP-NPA’s firm adherence to principled, pro-people and humanitarian policies and practice as well as its faithful adherence to and implementation of international conventions on human rights and international humanitarian laws.

He cited the matter of treatment of prisoners as a case in point.

Rosal said that, as in the past, everyone can see now in Bicol the humane and disciplined treatment by the NPA of its prisoners of war. "Contrast the published pictures and videos of POWs Lt. Ronaldo Fidelino and Pfc. Ronnel Nemeno with the horrendous images smuggled out of the US controlled prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and in Guantanamo, and you can very well see who the real terrorist is."

"Renewing its “terrorist tag” on the CPP and the New People's Army is a way for the world’s no. 1 terrorist to recriminate the CPP-NPA for standing against continuing US political, economic and military intervention in the Philippines, for persisting in the struggle to end the US neocolonial rule in the Philippines, for demanding that the US pay for its slew of war crimes in the Philippines, for standing against US invasion. occupation and oppression of Iraq and Afghanistan and oppression of other peoples, and for making significant contributions to the struggle against US imperialism worldwide," Rosal added.

"We will not take this matter sitting down," Rosal said.

Rosal also condemned the Philippine government for "seeking and obligingly accepting such high-handed interventionism by the US government." He said. "The puppet Arroyo regime has still not learned any modicum of national self-respect even after being shabbily treated by its Master Bush in the wake of her order to pull out the Philippine military contingent in Iraq in order to save her own skin."

Rosal recalled the December 2003 talks between the Philippine government and the NDF where both sides agreed "to resolve the outstanding issue of the 'terrorist' listing" of the CPP, NPA and NDF Chief Political Consultant Jose Ma. Sison.

"For the sake of the Philippine sovereignty and independence and the Filipino people's desire for peace and progress," Rosal said, "we demand that the Arroyo government take a stand against US interventionism and its terrorist-tagging of the CPP and NPA."

Reference:
Anne Buenaventura
Media Officer
Cellphone Number: +63910-240-3553



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