PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines

CPP condemns GMA government for making
a mockery of the peace talks
January 27, 2003

The Communist Party of the Philippines and the revolutionary movement can in no way accept the the single-peace process being forwarded by the Macapagal government.

In a statement, CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal also condemned the Macapagal government for "all the more sabotaging the peace process by adamantly insisting on the FTO (foreign terrorist organization) tag, viciously villifying and persecuting chief peace consultant Jose Ma. Sison and other members of the NDF peace panel, totally trashing the ten important previous agreements with the NDF and ordering more sustained military offensives both in the countryside and urban areas."

"The way this government is making a mockery of it, the peace process will not progress even by an inch," Rosal said.

Rosal said that "the Macapagal-Arroyo regime has been making a bad habit of deceitfully grabbing all and whatever issue it can hurl and whatever charge it can file against the CPP-NPA-NDF and the peace panel in a desperate effort to make the slippery terrorist tag stick, villify the Party and its leaders and justify the escalation of attacks against the revolutionary movement."

"Now it is using the legitimate punishment of a proven diehard renegade and criminal to file trumped up charges and all the more push its labelling of the CPP-NPA-NDF, revolutionary leaders and the NDF peace panel as terrorists", Rosal added.

The CPP spokesman was referring to president Macapagal's latest order to the AFP, PNP, the intelligence agencies and the Dept. of Foreign Affairs to file cases against Sison for the "assasination" of Kintanar and various other "assasinations" made by the NPA, including that of ex-PC Colonel Rodolfo Aguinaldo.

"Concocting charges against Comrade Sison is a desperate attempt by the Macapagal-Arroyo regime to villify him and justify their 'terrorist' tag on him," Rosal added.

Rosal explained that "matters of revolutionary justice are decided upon by the appropriate organs of political power. Comrade Sison's task as senior political consultant to the NDFP negotiating panel has nothing to do with the operational matters of the NPA".

Rosal also reiterated the Party and NDF's commitment to peace talks: "As we have declared in the past, the NDF is always open to engage in peace talks."

However, he stressed that "negotiations should be a two way process. Agreements should be reached with the two sides talking. It cannot be simply imposed by one side on the other. We do not want to waste time listening to the government just talking to itself," thus declared Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal, spokesman of the CPP in a radio interview this morning.

"How can we continue negotiations when mutually signed agreements are now being trashed by the GRP," Rosal said.

The CPP spokesman, however, asserted three requirements for the resumption of talks. He said that the government "should put an end to the all-out war of terror against the people, remove the terrorist label against Comrade Jose Ma. Sison and respect all agreements entered in the past by the GRP and NDFP", Rosal said.

Among the agreements Rosal was referring to are The Hague Joint Declaration of 1992 which sets forth four substantial agenda for the peace talks -- namely, human rights and international humanitarian law, socio-economic reform, political and constitutional reforms and disposition of forces -- and the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).

Rosal said that "the GRP's insistence on pinning the 'terrorist' tag on the CPP-NPA-NDF, Comrade Sison and other revolutionary personages violates the JASIG."

Rosal also rejected the "final comprehensive peace proposal" prepared by the government as a "document of surrender". He said that "it is not a proposal that seeks the serious discussion by both sides to resolve the root causes of the armed conflict but simply seeks the laying down of our arms and surrender of our principles and the national and democratic rights of the people".

Meanwhile, Rosal vehemently denied that there is an "NPA hitlist" that includes top government officials. "That is all psywar. That is nothing but a Malacañang concoction", Rosal said.

Contrary to Malacañang's allegation that Kintanar has become just an ordinary civilian, "a good citizen" and one who is interested in peace, Rosal said that "Malacañang is making him out to be an angel when in fact he is a despicable element who did nothing but malevolently collaborate with sinister criminal syndicates, rotten military, police and intelligence elements and scums of the earth in committing a long-list of crimes against the people and revolutionary movement."

"Kintanar is just one of those criminal elements that has found shelter in Malacañang. Macapagal-Arroyo has herself even confirmed that Kintanar is an intelligence agent of the government", Rosal added.

"He did not simply remove himself from the revolutionary movement, he even went full-throttle with his criminal and counter-revolutionary activities," Rosal continued.

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



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