PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines

Time running out fast for GMA on peace talks -- CPP
January 12, 2004

The Arroyo government must immediately take steps to implement previously signed agreements and remove its "roadblocks to peace" if it wants talks with the National Democratic Front to progress at all before the 2004 polls and prove to the electorate that it is serious in pursuing the peace process.

According to Communist Party of the Philippines spokesman Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal, "Gloria Arroyo is fast running out of time."

Rosal asserted that "Arroyo needs to totally reverse her intransigent militarist policies and remove the 'roadblocks' she has set up if she wants to achieve anything substantial before the elections."

"If she wants to avoid the notoriety of being the most hostile to the peace process among the post-martial law presidents, the very least Arroyo should do is to immediately implement the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and set up the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC)," Rosal said.

The CARHRIHL was signed by President Estrada and NDF Chairman Mariano Orosa in 1998. It requires the Philippine government and the NDF to set up a Joint Monitoring Committee to oversee the implementation of the agreement and to receive and investigate reports of rights violations by both parties.

"No one else but Arroyo and the militarists behind her are to blame for our skepticism regarding the present government's real attitude towards negotiations with the NDF," Rosal added. He said that the NDF is always open to talks with the government as long as the latter really wants to pursue genuine peace and not just to inveigle the revolutionary forces into surrendering. "But it is the Arroyo government that has set up and refused to remove the roadblocks that have been stalling the talks."

Among the other "roadblocks" cited by Rosal are Arroyo's all-out international campaign especially in the US and the European Union to tag the CPP, NPA and NDF Senior Political Consultant Jose Ma. Sison as "terrorists" and her disregard of all of the 10 important agreements signed by the GRP and NDF, including The Hague Declaration that laid the basic framework for the talks. In its stead, Arroyo has substituted the Malaca�ang-drafted "Final Peace Agreement" which the CPP regards as a "surrender agreement" and "totally inconsistent with the peace process."

Rosal had earlier invited presidential candidates Fernando Poe, Jr., Raul Roco and Eddie Villanueva to meet with NDF representatives to discuss their respective programs and prospects for the peace talks.

"If the Arroyo government continues to do nothing to save the peace talks before its term ends, we may have many better prospects anyway after the May elections," said Rosal.

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



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